from:"Krishnendu Chakraborty"

You can go and open an Assamese medium school any where in India  no one 
will oppose you  , trust me. 
The question is did you ever try ?
 
There are Tamil and Telugu Medium school in Mumbai, Maharashtra . I personally 
know about  one such school in Matunga area in Mumbai.
There are Nepali and Urdu medium school in WB   and Nepali and Urdu both are 
RECOGNIZED  medium by Govt. of WB
There is Bengali medium school in Bihar.
 
The Assamese community in Mumbai celebrates Bihu every year . Does any Shiv 
Sena zealot protest -- why Assamese culture in Maharashtra ?  The same is true 
everywhere in India and even abroad.
All these are driven by  market demand.
 
One who lives in Bengal is Bengali, one who lives in Bihar is Bihari, one 
who lives in Orissa is Oriya, one who lives is Tamilnadu is Tamil, one who 
lives in Punjab is Punjabi, then why the one who lives in Assam is still 
bengali or Bihari or Punjabi
 
---  In many occassions C'da has said I am an American Citizen of Assamese 
ethnicity . Do you take objection to that ?  Does the Assameses folks living 
in Maharashtra, Orissa, Bengal, Bihar forgo Bihu celebration ?  Do they say I 
am Marathi, I am Bihari etc.  By your definition,  there are very few members 
in this Assamnet , which you want to protect from other linguistic groups,  who 
are Assamese -- they are Australians, Americans, Europeans, Marathi etc.  So 
your basic argument on protecting Assamnet does not exist anymore.
You are mixing two things --  Residency or Domicile  and language.  

Coming to your original rant ,  If you are so concerned with Bangla font in 
Assamnet,  why are you writing in English .. in Roman font ?  How strange ! You 
are even publishing a news paper in English ! 
 
Sushanta has contributed a lot more in this net then you  and from the 
information I have , he writes in Assamese media too.
 
It is attitude like this which has alieneted the Khasis, Mizos , Nagas  and now 
Bodos.

I am not going to reply any of your rant but if you do not want to see a 
fragmented Assam, I suggest Grow up.
 


Now, if you demand an Assamese school in Gujarat and want the Guj. Govt. to
pay for it, they may say no.
 
Why Assam Govt recognized other state's medium as Govt school Medium? In Barak 
Valley.
 
 Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 09:06:44 -0500
 From: assamrs at gmail.com
 To: assam at assamnet.org
 Subject: Re: [Assam] Ramayana in Comic form
 
 Go and try to start an Assamese school - say in Gujarat, and then let me
 know if the Govt. of Gujarat shuts it down.
 
 Now, if you demand an Assamese school in Gujarat and want the Guj. Govt. to
 pay for it, they may say no.
 
 And Assamnet does not belong to any govt.
 
 
 
 On Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 8:57 AM, Dhruba Jyoti Deka 
 dhrubajyotideka at hotmail.com wrote:
 
 
  
  All states within India allow any private language school to operate,
  including foreign languages. At least that was the way it was when I was
  there.
  
 
 
 
  Where there was or is Assamese medium school other states beyond Assam, in
  India? Kindly let me know.
 
   Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 08:54:27 -0500
   From: assamrs at gmail.com
   To: assam at assamnet.org
   Subject: Re: [Assam] Ramayana in Comic form
  
  All states within India allow any private language school to operate,
  including foreign languages. At least that was the way it was when I was
  there.
  
   Assamnet is run by a few individuals and started many years ago. It is
   really upto the administrators what material should or should not be
   allowed.
  
   Generally, the Assamnet's focus is Assam centric.
  
  
  
   On Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 8:34 AM, Dhruba Jyoti Deka 
   dhrubajyotideka at hotmail.com wrote:
  
   
 Yes, you are right it is Assamnet. As I understand it's niether
  Banglanet
 nor Assamesenet! It's India My dear !
   
   
   
Do West Bengal allows Assamese medium in Schools? Do Bihar? Do UP? Do
Rajasthan?
   
 From: pragyan.tsc50 at gmail.com
 Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 17:26:52 +0530
 To: assam at assamnet.org
 Subject: Re: [Assam] Ramayana in Comic form

 'Is it Assamnet or Banglanet? Advertising Bangla Unicode texts? :-)'

 Yes, you are right it is Assamnet. As I understand it's niether
  Banglanet
 nor Assamesenet! It's India My dear !

 Sushanta

 2010/8/18 Dhruba Jyoti Deka dhrubajyotideka at hotmail.com

 
  Is it Assamnet or Banglanet? Advertising Bangla Unicode texts? :-)
 
   From: pragyan.tsc50 at gmail.com
   Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 21:00:05 +0530
   To: assam at assamnet.org; xobdo at googlegroups.com
   Subject: [Assam] Ramayana in Comic form
  
   Let your kids read Complete Ramayana in Comic form
  
  
   
  http://www.scribd.com/full/29882404?access_key=key-15boxcvmdkba8yvyxldy
  
   --
   Sushanta Kar
   সুশান্ত কর
   তিনসুকিয়া, আসাম

[Assam] Ramayana in Comic form

Have you ever said yourself as Assamese with Bengali ethnicity?
I am fluent in reading, writing and speaking in Assamese unlike many modern 
Assamese who do not know even the Assamese alphabets.I always say my mother 
tongue is Bengali but I am from Assam.  I would not have joined this forum 
otherwise.But unfortunately,  I have always found a handful chauvinist like you 
who are up in arms to discourage people like me or Sushanta.
 

Rest other just was about technical issue of this mailing list.Nope. Not just 
technical issues (though even technically Assamese font are available if you 
want to use).  I have just proved that different linguistic schools DO exist 
in other states of India, different linguistic groups DO enjoy thier cultural 
freedom just about anywhere in world, people of Assamese ethinicity DO NOT 
call themselves as Marathi or Gujarati just because they live there and 
finally that you are confused with Domicile and LanguageBTW  you did not 
explain why such a firebrand protector of Assamese language want to publish a 
newspaper in English
 
 Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 07:28:14 -0700
 From: krish_gau at yahoo.com
 To: assam at assamnet.org
 Subject: [Assam] Ramayana in Comic form
 
 You can go and open an Assamese medium school any where in India  no one 
 will oppose you  , trust me. 
 The question is did you ever try ?
  
 There are Tamil and Telugu Medium school in Mumbai, Maharashtra . I 
 personally know about  one such school in Matunga area in Mumbai.
 There are Nepali and Urdu medium school in WB   and Nepali and Urdu both are 
 RECOGNIZED  medium by Govt. of WB
 There is Bengali medium school in Bihar.
  
 The Assamese community in Mumbai celebrates Bihu every year . Does any Shiv 
 Sena zealot protest -- why Assamese culture in Maharashtra ?  The same is 
 true everywhere in India and even abroad.
 All these are driven by  market demand.
  
 One who lives in Bengal is Bengali, one who lives in Bihar is Bihari, one 
 who lives in Orissa is Oriya, one who lives is Tamilnadu is Tamil, one who 
 lives in Punjab is Punjabi, then why the one who lives in Assam is 
 still bengali or Bihari or Punjabi
  
 ---  In many occassions C'da has said I am an American Citizen of Assamese 
 ethnicity . Do you take objection to that ?  Does the Assameses folks living 
 in Maharashtra, Orissa, Bengal, Bihar forgo Bihu celebration ?  Do they say I 
 am Marathi, I am Bihari etc.  By your definition,  there are very few members 
 in this Assamnet , which you want to protect from other linguistic groups,  
 who are Assamese -- they are Australians, Americans, Europeans, Marathi etc.  
 So your basic argument on protecting Assamnet does not exist anymore.
 You are mixing two things --  Residency or Domicile  and language.  
 
 Coming to your original rant ,  If you are so concerned with Bangla font in 
 Assamnet,  why are you writing in English .. in Roman font ?  How strange ! 
 You are even publishing a news paper in English ! 
  
 Sushanta has contributed a lot more in this net then you  and from the 
 information I have , he writes in Assamese media too.
  
 It is attitude like this which has alieneted the Khasis, Mizos , Nagas  and 
 now Bodos.
 
 I am not going to reply any of your rant but if you do not want to see a 
 fragmented Assam, I suggest Grow up.
  
 
 
 Now, if you demand an Assamese school in Gujarat and want the Guj. Govt. to
 pay for it, they may say no.
  
 Why Assam Govt recognized other state's medium as Govt school Medium? In 
 Barak Valley.
  
  Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 09:06:44 -0500
  From: assamrs at gmail.com
  To: assam at assamnet.org
  Subject: Re: [Assam] Ramayana in Comic form
  
  Go and try to start an Assamese school - say in Gujarat, and then let me
  know if the Govt. of Gujarat shuts it down.
  
  Now, if you demand an Assamese school in Gujarat and want the Guj. Govt. to
  pay for it, they may say no.
  
  And Assamnet does not belong to any govt.
  
  
  
  On Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 8:57 AM, Dhruba Jyoti Deka 
  dhrubajyotideka at hotmail.com wrote:
  
  
   
   All states within India allow any private language school to operate,
   including foreign languages. At least that was the way it was when I was
   there.
   
  
  
  
   Where there was or is Assamese medium school other states beyond Assam, in
   India? Kindly let me know.
  
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 08:54:27 -0500
From: assamrs at gmail.com
To: assam at assamnet.org
Subject: Re: [Assam] Ramayana in Comic form
   
   All states within India allow any private language school to operate,
   including foreign languages. At least that was the way it was when I was
   there.
   
Assamnet is run by a few individuals and started many years ago. It is
really upto the administrators what material should or should not be
allowed.
   
Generally, the Assamnet's focus is Assam centric.

[Assam] Ramayana in Comic form

Coming to your original rant ,  If you are so concerned with Bangla font in 
Assamnet,  why are you writing in English .. in Roman font ?  How strange ! 
 
Do you know about Unicode? The Bangla system sucked the scope of Assamese 
Unicode. CDAC has done few. Personally I developed one, with Font Embeding 
Technology too.
 
Try to look about the Unicode font's back end. Then you will understand.
 
Just to help you --
http://salrc.uchicago.edu/resources/fonts/available/bengali/
http://www.ratneresearch.com/
 
You are even publishing a news paper in English !
 
Is it an offence? 
 
No.  But yout took  an offence when  Sushanta's post include a couple of Bangla 
font !  What a logic !

I can speak  write Bangla  Oriya well, not being to either. But do you? 
 
Not Oriya  but yes,  Assamese and Hindi.
 
Do the maximum, living in Assam? 
 
Those who are in Brahpaputra valley --- yes.  Those in Barak - No,  just the 
way Gorkhas in Darjeeling district of WB  do not know Bengali. There are many 
Bodo in Bodo dominated areas who do not speak Assamese. 
 Again ,  it is driven my market force --- the need.

Learning other language is always good, which Bangla people never tried, 
trying and will not also. 
 
-- Then how come Sushanta writes in Prantik ?  Try to explain and you will know 
your arguments are hollow.

They are just ticking into the old man.. Rabindra.
 
--  Rabindra Nath Tagore was a great poet.  His works have been  translated in 
many different languages. One life is not enough to digest even a section of 
his works.  Even Boston public library has works of Rabindranath.  He is far 
above  comments of one Mr Dhruba Jyoti Deka .   That merely demonstrates your 
cheap mentality.
 
I have read lots of Bangla books. 
 
I doubt you have read ANY decent book.

How many Bengalis read Assamese book? Do you?

Yes I do.  And I have written articles in Assamese magazines. My aunt has 
translated  Assamese novel to Bengali. 
And we do not pass any comment against Lakshminath Bezbarua or JyotiPrasad or 
contemporary writers like Home Borgohain or Hiren Gohain.  
 You have anything more to say ?
 
 Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 07:28:14 -0700
 From: krish_gau at yahoo.com
 To: assam at assamnet.org
 Subject: [Assam] Ramayana in Comic form
 
 You can go and open an Assamese medium school any where in India  no one 
 will oppose you  , trust me. 
 The question is did you ever try ?
  
 There are Tamil and Telugu Medium school in Mumbai, Maharashtra . I 
 personally know about  one such school in Matunga area in Mumbai.
 There are Nepali and Urdu medium school in WB   and Nepali and Urdu both are 
 RECOGNIZED  medium by Govt. of WB
 There is Bengali medium school in Bihar.
  
 The Assamese community in Mumbai celebrates Bihu every year . Does any Shiv 
 Sena zealot protest -- why Assamese culture in Maharashtra ?  The same is 
 true everywhere in India and even abroad.
 All these are driven by  market demand.
  
 One who lives in Bengal is Bengali, one who lives in Bihar is Bihari, one 
 who lives in Orissa is Oriya, one who lives is Tamilnadu is Tamil, one who 
 lives in Punjab is Punjabi, then why the one who lives in Assam is 
 still bengali or Bihari or Punjabi
  
 ---  In many occassions C'da has said I am an American Citizen of Assamese 
 ethnicity . Do you take objection to that ?  Does the Assameses folks living 
 in Maharashtra, Orissa, Bengal, Bihar forgo Bihu celebration ?  Do they say I 
 am Marathi, I am Bihari etc.  By your definition,  there are very few members 
 in this Assamnet , which you want to protect from other linguistic groups,  
 who are Assamese -- they are Australians, Americans, Europeans, Marathi etc.  
 So your basic argument on protecting Assamnet does not exist anymore.
 You are mixing two things --  Residency or Domicile  and language.  
 
 Coming to your original rant ,  If you are so concerned with Bangla font in 
 Assamnet,  why are you writing in English .. in Roman font ?  How strange ! 
 You are even publishing a news paper in English ! 
  
 Sushanta has contributed a lot more in this net then you  and from the 
 information I have , he writes in Assamese media too.
  
 It is attitude like this which has alieneted the Khasis, Mizos , Nagas  and 
 now Bodos.
 
 I am not going to reply any of your rant but if you do not want to see a 
 fragmented Assam, I suggest Grow up.
  
 
 
 Now, if you demand an Assamese school in Gujarat and want the Guj. Govt. to
 pay for it, they may say no.
  
 Why Assam Govt recognized other state's medium as Govt school Medium? In 
 Barak Valley.
  
  Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 09:06:44 -0500
  From: assamrs at gmail.com
  To: assam at assamnet.org
  Subject: Re: [Assam] Ramayana in Comic form
  
  Go and try to start an Assamese school - say in Gujarat, and then let me
  know if the Govt. of Gujarat shuts it down.
  
  Now, if you demand an Assamese school in Gujarat and

[Assam] Ramayana in Comic form

Tell me one thing, if somebody(non-Assamese) say us Assamese, we feel proud. 
Why do the Bihari  Bengali get irritated for the same? Got the logic now?
 
---  Who got irritated ?  I have friends from Bengal   Bihar  but never saw 
them getting irritated.  That must be your imagination !  

May be some magic, as Bret Lee also use to write articles in Assam Tribune. :-)

---  Bret Lee writes in Assamese language  !   Never knew .  Oh ! Assam 
Tribune is an English newspaper .  So why would Bret Lee, whose native is 
English,  have any problem writing in English.   Some argument , I must say 
!   And FYI  ,  in many cases, such syndicated columns are written by others 
based on dictation by the person concerned. 

Now the point, for seriouse one, how Udit Narayan sang Assamese song? How Lata 
Mangeshkar sang? Do they too knew Assamese? :P

--  A very disingenious argument.  When they sing, they use scripts written 
in Hindi/English/Marathi. There is not need to know the language.  For example, 
if you write Oriya using English script,  I can read it out even though I do 
not know Oriya.  there might be some accent issue though.  However,  I will not 
be able to write a word in Oriya.
 
One cannot write  , that too in a magazine like Prantik,  without knowing the 
language.
 
As he is far above from comments of one Mr Dhruba Jyoti Deka, he is far 
above from madness, proudness  praise of  one Mr Krishnendu Chakravarty too.

--  Perfect.  But I never expressed any madness etc.
 
Just few minutes before I was reading Desh. Sorry to get to know from you 
that Desh is -un-decent. I will stop from now on. I thought Prothom 
Protishruti was also decent. What a stupid I was. :P
 
--  I know you just through what you post.  Your posts does not reflect a 
mentality of a matured person.  If you have indeed read decent books ,  you do 
not appear to be able to understand  those.  
 
Ashapurna Devi would have been ashamed had she seen such comments (old man.. 
Rabindra.)  from someone who claims to have read  Prothom Pratishruti 

 Yes I do.  And I have written articles in Assamese magazines.
I asked, how many do you read. But you said you write. Now say, what is logic, 
and where is logic.
 
-- You asked me How many Bengalis read Assamese book? Do you?   And I said 
Yes I Do.  That I have written is an additional piece of information  .  If 
you still cannot understand the logic, God save Assam from such wannabe 
journalists :) 
 
 

  
 Just to help you --
 http://salrc.uchicago.edu/resources/fonts/available/bengali/
 http://www.ratneresearch.com/
 
 
No need to help me in that regard.
 
 No.  But yout took  an offence when  Sushanta's post include a couple of 
 Bangla font !  What a logic !
 
Tell me one thing, if somebody(non-Assamese) say us Assamese, we feel proud. 
Why do the Bihari  Bengali get irritated for the same? Got the logic now?
 
 -- Then how come Sushanta writes in Prantik ?  Try to explain and you will 
 know your arguments are hollow.
 
May be some magic, as Bret Lee also use to write articles in Assam Tribune. :-)
Now the point, for seriouse one, how Udit Narayan sang Assamese song? How Lata 
Mangeshkar sang? Do they too knew Assamese? :P
 
 --  Rabindra Nath Tagore was a great poet.  His works have been  translated 
 in many different languages. One life is not enough to digest even a section 
 of his works.  Even Boston public library has works of Rabindranath.  He is 
 far above  comments of one Mr Dhruba Jyoti Deka .   That merely demonstrates 
 your cheap mentality.
 
 
Yes he was. No offence for it.
As he is far above from comments of one Mr Dhruba Jyoti Deka, he is far above 
from madness, proudness  praise of  one Mr Krishnendu Chakravarty too.
 
 I doubt you have read ANY decent book.
 
Just few minutes before I was reading Desh. Sorry to get to know from you 
that Desh is -un-decent. I will stop from now on. I thought Prothom 
Protishruti was also decent. What a stupid I was. :P
 
 Yes I do.  And I have written articles in Assamese magazines.
 
I asked, how many do you read. But you said you write. Now say, what is logic, 
and where is logic.
 
 

 
 Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 08:24:22 -0700
 From: krish_gau at yahoo.com
 To: assam at assamnet.org
 Subject: [Assam] Ramayana in Comic form
 
 Coming to your original rant ,  If you are so concerned with Bangla font in 
 Assamnet,  why are you writing in English .. in Roman font ?  How strange ! 
  
 Do you know about Unicode? The Bangla system sucked the scope of Assamese 
 Unicode. CDAC has done few. Personally I developed one, with Font Embeding 
 Technology too.
  
 Try to look about the Unicode font's back end. Then you will understand.
  
 Just to help you --
 http://salrc.uchicago.edu/resources/fonts/available/bengali/
 http://www.ratneresearch.com/
  
 You are even publishing a news paper in English !
  
 Is it an offence? 
  
 No.  But yout took

[Assam] Ramayana in Comic form

The cat is out of bag ..  
 
 
 
***
I am mailing from mobile, due to power failure. That is why I will not be 
able to go point to point or detailed because of character limitation.

Now, Mr Sushanta, you a* deserve only hatred. And what the hell is PRANTIK? 
Do not say what it was. Say what it is.
This time I would like to express that I hate Bengali people. Because nuisance 
always want that other should read and learn bangla, but never u nuisance read 
and learn other language's literature. You do write is another thing, that may 
be done by dictation and writing by other.

Final saying, it is assamnet, not your banglanet. It is all about Assam, not 
about your bangla and Rabindranath, who licked toes of british for prizes, 
while other were getting killed fighting against british.

You people are the snake of hidden corner, for whom, bangladeshis are getting 
ease to settle in Assam. You people helping them, so that one day bangla 
becomes the majority language of assam. Bloody backbitter bangladeshi.

 From: pragyan.tsc50 at gmail.com
 Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 23:47:16 +0530
 To: assam at assamnet.org
 Subject: [Assam] Ramayana in Comic form
 
 Dear
 Krishnendu and others
 'I have always found a handful chauvinist like you who are up in arms to
 discourage people like me or Sushanta.' said Krishnendu.
 
 That's why very few Bengali come and join here.
 
 Dhrubojyoty started all these arguments only because he hate Bengali. There
 is no use of argue with him. I'm not going to.
 I can only state that there are thousands of Bengali here in Assam and
 Elsewhere who also hate Assamese and never talk anything positive about
 them. I have bad experiences with them either.
 The point is, dose Dhruba Deka and people like him want that  those people
 living in Assam and speak languages other then Assamese should create
 separate  group and talk all the rubbish like Dhrubajyoti  against Assamese.
 Will it be a healthy practice?
 
 As far my knowledge goes, in University level Assamese was first introduced
 in Kolkata University. After creation of GU and DU Assamese department there
 ceased to exist only because dearth of Student. Saying thus, I don't want to
 certify West Bengal as as  ideal state of the country. I don't need to.
 Because that was/ is not my state.
 Rather , Personally I think , it's a  disease which was imported from modern
 Europe and has infected whole the country and all the states.( I'm talking
 about the very concept of 'Nation State and nation Building'.) Every one is
 here busy with creating their own nation. And so, no where in India minority
 linguistic groups enjoys the equal status and honor. Most of the linguistic
 group has no state to claim their own. That's why Rajbonshis are fighting
 against both Assam and Bengal government for recognition of their mother
 tongues.
 Ask them , they will say if the government and Middle Class Bengali and
 Assamese has any different attitude towards them. To my knowledge, No. No
 one want them to secede from the Majority language! If they are Bengali,
 then WB Bengali should have been fight for their right in Assam. If they are
 Assamese ,Assamese should have been fight for their right in Bengal. But,
 who bother? Rather  friends like Dhruba Jyoti Deka  prefer to behave same
 way in thier  own state. This was he will forget those Assamese who lives
 elsewhere, specially in WB and Bangladesh. His Bengali counterpart will
 exclude  those Bengali who live out side the Border of WB.
 Dhrubajyoti may consider Bengali as Migrant in Assam, I'm not. He just
 forgot that present Assam is a
 
 Conglomeration of different region and part of provinces of British India. A
 Part of Bengal also transferred to Assam. He has referred to Bengali of
 Cachar, who thinks Cachar is not part of Assam and they use the word Assam
 for Brahmaputra valley . He hate Bengali so he referred Bengali only  . We
 often hear Whenever an Assamese talk about Assam he means Brahmaputra
 Vally.  Only the other day AGP MPs raise question in Parliament  about the
 big river dam in Assam. They talked about Dams in Arunachal Pradeh. didn't
 uttered a word about Tipaimukh Dam. Being a college teacher I often hear my
 college say Assam has only three University, GU, DU and TU . They just
 forget that there is another University call Assam university at Silchar.
 I'm not citing these example to finds faults . I'd just request you all to
 find the reason behind such people's psycho.
 
 Whole India is infected with such problems and very few want it to be
 treated positively.  I know a good number of  Barak Velley People are
 waiting eagerly for separation of NC Hills and Karbi Anglong from Assam, so
 that they get it without any blood loss. That will be another Bengali lead
 province that way. People like Dhruba Jyoti are only  working for that dream
 comes true!
 
 That's why , I

[Assam] I Loved This One---from ToI

2010-08-16 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

1)  Why only 10 MPs from Assam.  In another post 
(http://assamnet.org/pipermail/assam_assamnet.org/2010-August/026808.html)   
you  said even other states want autonomy .  So why would MPs from those states 
not join ?
 
2) I understand that they might not be able to articulate why they want 
autonomy.  But then don't we have friends who can help them ?  I mean those who 
are asking for Sovereignty ... a couple of steps farther than Autonomy.  
 
3) I understand from some of your post that you are all for Sovereign Assam.  
You want Assam to be out of India.  And you believe people of Assam also want 
the same.  Now if that is true,  are we to believe that no one in Assam know 
WHY they want Sovereignty (or a few  steps behind  --  autonomy)  but they just 
want it for some unknown reason ?
 


Let us say the entire lot of, what, ten MPs from Assam went and raised a hue 
and cry wanting autonomy. If someone asks them WHY they want autonomy, what 
would they say? If some like YOU could not, or would not articulate it, 
candidly, you havingNO personal motives involved, can you imagine this crew 
will be able to go say they want autonomy because the Indian system is broken, 
and that they want autonomy to reform and reorganize the system to fit their 
own needs, to be responsive, to be accountable, to be progressive ?
And if they would want to, would they have the wherewithal to articulate a 
response?
By asking a question like this, are you not displaying your own unwillingness 
to recognize the realities and deal with them with a view to obtaining results?

On Aug 15, 2010, at 2:01 PM, Dilip Deka wrote:
 All MPs from Assam do not belong to the same party. The same applies to the 
 other states that I was talking about.
 Are you saying there is not a single parliamentarian who wants to bring up 
 Autonomy? Even if interested parties pay him/them? :-)
 
 
 



  
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[Assam] The autonomy issue

2010-08-13 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

 
Continuing from what C’da posted (who are we to dictate what the Nagas want or 
what the Kashmiris want or what Bodos want.) …   who are  Mahantas to dictate 
what Dekas want  OR who are Barpetias to dictate what Nalbarias want … drill 
down further ---   who are Ulubarians to dictate what Uzanbazarians want etc.
 
On his other comment (Only the incurably pretentious would want to tell them 
what they should be happy with),  we do know some Naga groups will be happy 
with a greater Nagalim including parts of Assam  and some Bodo groups , a 
Bodoland carved out of Assam.  There are other groups which will be happy with 
parts of Assam.  Are you going to make all these groups happy ?
 
***
Let's take the ' bottom line to the logical conclusion.
We will have 
Dekaland,Kalitaland,Bodoland,Rabhaland,Tiwaland,Dimasaland,Misingland,Islamistan---ad
infinitum.
Now,we have created another 'bottom line'---WHERE WILL 'ULFALAND' FIT
IN THEIR MIDST.
CONFUSION WORSE CONFOUNDED!!!
KJD
 
On Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 10:25 PM, Chan Mahanta cmahanta at gmail.com wrote:
 The  bottom line is:
 
 
DO WE REALLY NEED ANY OTHER DEFINITION OF AUTONOMY? A  PERFECT EXAMPLE
OF A COUNTRY WITHIN A COUNTRY
 
 
 *** The 'country' does not exist. It is a figment of idle imaginations.  If 
 it did, it wouldn't be in the shambles it is.
 So the question of a country within a country does not arise.
 
 
 *** The second thing is that who are we to dictate what the Nagas want or 
 what the Kashmiris want or what Bodos want.
 Only the incurably pretentious would want to tell them what they should be 
 happy with.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 On Aug 12, 2010, at 7:24 PM, kamal deka wrote:
 
 Take a look at the' Naga- Indian' imbroglio.Article 371A ( the
 Constitution was amended to accommodate that) provides various
 safeguards for Nagaland.These include a provision whereby no Act of
 Parliament in respect of the religious or social practices of
 Nagas,Naga customary law and procedure,administration of civil and
 criminal justice involving decisions according to Naga customary law
 and ownership and transfer of land shall apply to the state.IS THERE
 ANY REASON,AFTER  PROCURING ALL OF THE ABOVE( READ AUTONOMY),WHY NAGA
 IDENTITY OR CULTURE OR OTHER NAGA INTERESTS SHOULD BE INJURED OR
 ERODED ?
 And yet,NSCN proclaimed its motto to be NAGALAND FOR CHRIST.The NSCN
 manifesto exclaims that Nagas are  DIFFERENT FROM OTHER INDIANS
 BECAUSE THEY ARE CHRISTIANS and they could lose their identity  in an
 ocean of Hindus and other non-christians in India,completely
 sidestepping the fact that India is a  secular state in which freedom
 of worship is guaranteed by the Constitution.An valid arguement can be
 made by citing the fact that for every Christian in Nagaland,there are
 almost 20 elsewhere in the country.The MAR THOMAS CHURCH OF KERALA IS
 ONE OF THE VERY OLDEST ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD AND IT HAS FLOURISHED FOR
 1940 YEARS BECAUSE OF THE TOLERANCE AND RESPECT SHOWN BY THE PEOPLE
 BELONGING TO OTHER FAITHS.AND IF ASSURANCE WERE NEEDED,THIS IS TO BE
 FOUND IN THE INCREASE IN NAGALAND'S OWN CHRISTIAN POPULATION SINCE
 1947.
 
 Now take a look at the custom-made Article 370 which mandates that
 the applicability of every law of the Indian Parliament to JK
 requires i. consultation with the JK government if the subject matter
 of the law pertains to defence or external affairs or communications,
 and ii. concurrence of the JK government if the law pertains to
 subjects other than defence or external affairs or communications. No
 other state in India has such privilege. That is why the Indian Penal
 Code, the Prevention of Corruption Act and rules framed for the
 Central Bureau of Investigation are among the several Parliamentary
 enactments which are simply not in vogue in JK.
 
 As bad as that, if not worse, is the fact that many provisions of the
 Constitution of India are either i. simply not applicable to JK state
 or ii. are applicable to JK only in a modified form or iii. subsumed
 by the provisions of the JK constitution.
 
 Further, as in the case a Parliamentary law, application to JK of a
 provision of the Indian Constitution requires consultation/consent of
 the JK government depending upon the subject of the constitutional
 provision. Again, no other state in India has such a privilege of
 saying 'Yes' or 'No' to a constitutional measure.
 
 JK is the only state in India --
 Where a distinction has been permitted to be made between state
 citizens (designated as 'permanent residents') and other Indian
 citizens (who are not 'permanent residents') and where -- contrary to
 the principles of equality before the law (Article 14), prohibition of
 discrimination on the ground of place of birth (Article 15) and
 equality of opportunity in public employment (Article 16), -- laws are
 permissible to confer special rights and privileges on 'permanent
 residents' with respect to employment under the

[Assam] If We Do the Math

2010-08-10 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

The math is incorrect -- 20% of 28,054 crore CANNOT BE 56,108 crore. That is
200% of 28,054 crore.
About your question --
You should ask to those who publish the corruption index -- like Nicholas
Charron, The University of Gothenburg, Sweden OR Transparency International.
They might want to change their method based on your suggestion.
***
The following from ToI:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/Rs-28054-crore-spent-on-Commonwealth-Games-Reddy/articleshow/6282261.cms

Now if we do the math, assuming ONLY 20/80 ( as opposed to the usual 60/40,
stolen/used ratio), then 20% of Rs. 280,540,000,000 is Rs. 56,108 crores,
likely stolen. If it is only 10/90, even then it would be a staggering Rs.
28,054 crores.

Now then, if we compare the total ANNUAL corruption loss in Assam and the total
ONE TIME loss in the Corruptwealth Games ( you heard it here first)
undertaken by the Center, it should tell us where the WORST corruption takes
place.

Or would it?

Rs 28,054 crore spent on Commonwealth Games: Reddy
PTI, Aug 9, 2010, 05.57pm IST

NEW DELHI: Seeking cooperation from all quarters for making the Commonwealth
Games a success, Urban Development Minister S Jaipal Reddy on Monday said a
total of Rs 28,054 crore have been spent on the games out of which Rs 16,560
crore was given to the Delhi Government for upgrading the capital
infrastructure and building of various stadia.
Making an intervention during a debate in the Lok Sabha on the Commonwealth
Games, Reddy said of the total of money given to the Delhi Government, only Rs
670 crore has been spent directly on the games -- on building stadia.
The rest of the money has been spent on infrastructure development of the
capital, which is not directly linked to the games, he said.
Giving a break-up of the money spent, the minister said, the Delhi Government
has spent on various projects which includes Rs 650 crore for street scraping,
Rs 900 crore for development bus depots, Rs 3,000 crore for extension of Metro,
Rs 18,000 crore for augmenting DTC bus services and Rs 3,700 crore on flyovers
and bridges.
Of the Rs 11,494 crore spent by the centre, Rs 2.934 crore was spent on sports
infrastructure and Rs 678 crore on training of teams, while Rs 182 crore has
been given to MTNL, Rs 827.85 crore to the Ministry of Urban Development, Rs
487.57 to Information and Broadcasting Ministry and Rs 747 crore to Health
Ministry.
Reddy said the government has also given Rs 2,394 crore as loan to the
organising committee, which is to be returned by them after the games.
Defending the huge amount of money spent, he said most of the money has been
spent of infrastructure development which will remain as the country's legacy
long after the games are over.
If you furnish and paint your house before your daughter's wedding, then the
money spent on that cannot be said to be part of the dowry, he said.
Appealing to all parties to come together and make the games a success, he
said, All of us, cutting across party lines, should rise to make the games
successful and spectacular.
Asserting that Government will ensure that the corrupt are pursued to the end
of the earth, Reddy said, we all know that the CVC and other constitutional
bodies do their job, but if every primary observation is blown up to a scam,
then we cannot function.
I don't say that corruption has not taken place. No one can say that. All
irregularities will be inquired into exhaustively, he said.
I therefore say with confidence that we will be staging the best Commonwealth
Games in history. Some people took the position that a country like India,
which has a lot of poverty, should not have hosted the Commonwealth Games, the
minister said, adding that though he begged to differ he respected their
ideological position.
But with only a month left, this should not be raised, he said.
Replying to BJP member Kirti Azad comparing him with Mahabharata epic character
Bhishm Pitamaha, Reddy said as of now he would like to be focused like Arjun.
Reassuring the House that the projects will be ready before the games, he said,
the event can be organised even now.
The Delhi Government has also spent Rs 400 crore on parking facilities, Rs 200
crore on communications and IT and Rs 2,000 crore on power plants, he said.
Reddy said most of the projects will be completed by August 31, barring the
Barapullah Nallah project which would be over only by September.

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[Assam] Murder Most Foul - Pets

2008-07-18 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

Dear Ms Shukla,

This is regarding your article Murder most foul in the Deccan Chronicle, the 
feedback from Mr Ram Sarangapani  and your response to Mr Ram  .

As you suggested ,  let us come to the issue --

1) You have given a vivid description of how the dog was killed. So I would 
assume you are an eye witness to the incident and was in the room with Mr 
Yoronso.   May I know what you were doing there  and why you did not try to 
stop Mr Yoronso ?  If you were not there,  will it be fair to assume that the 
description was just your imagination ?

2) You have already convicted Mr Yoronso of crime and suggested what the 
punishment should be.  May I ask your legal authority to convict a citizen ? 

3) You have stated North-Eastern students at JNU regularly lynch and barbecue 
dogs  .  Can you provide an evidence that people of NE  barbecue dogs ?  Do 
you know for sure that all NE students are dog eaters ?

4) Are you advocating to stop the killing of hen, goat, lamb etc for human 
consumption ?

5) You mentioned that what Mr Yoronso did was illegal .  Is it that people who 
eat chicken or other form of meat are also doing illegal activity ? If so,  
what is your action plan ?

6) In your letter to Mr Ram you mentioned Yoronso did not just kill a dog -- 
though that is bad enough.  I understand that killing a dog is bad.  But did 
you ever use such strong words against killing a goat OR a Hen or a Duck etc ?  
If not, why do you think killing a dog is bad but not killing a goat ? 

7) In your letter to Mr Ram, you have stated -- Nagas and other North 
Easterners must join with all Indians .  Do you think that Nagas or other 
North Easterners are DIFFERENT from Indians ? 

8) In your article you mentioned about your pet -- Bindu and how your Army 
Husband terrorized the Village Head who SUPPOSEDLY  (Yes you did not have any 
proof) abducted your dog.  Do you think it was legal for your Army Husband to 
abuse his position ?  What is your action plan against him ?


Lastly,  you should know that the internet edition of any News Paper is 
accessible throughout the world.  If you are unable to accept the lectures 
from NRI you should not publish your article in internet editions.  As a 
matter of fact,  Mr Ram  seems to have a better grasp on history and geography 
of India than you.  He at least knows  that the North East India comprises of 7 
different states and certain communities of ONE state eats dog which you do not 
seem to know.

I am sad to say that it is because of mind set like yours that some people of 
North East feel alieneted.

Hope you will shed your arrogance and try to learn more about North Eastern 
India , India in general, the Indian judiciary system  and role and duty of 
Indian Army in India.


Best Regards

Krishnendu Chakraborty

(NOT an NRI  but currently in US due to work related reason)


  

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[Assam] Murder Most Foul - Pets

2008-07-18 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

Ram-da,   I am still awaiting a response from her (lucky you :) )

What I find amazing is her logic ---  what was said and is still
 maintained is that North Eastern students into which category Naga
 students fall -- have killed JNU campus dogs 

IF she think that she can say a sweeping statement like Students of NE just 
because Nagaland is in NE,  she should logicaly say students of India because 
Nagaland is in India !!

And if she thinks eating any animal is uncivilized,  she should first condemn 
her own community (I assume she is Punjabi)  which is arguably the largest meat 
eating community in India.




Again Ms. Shukla,

Go back a re-read your article. If you are unable and still cannot see the
light, maybe other netters and others from the NE canpin point these again
to you.

I am again copying this to Assam net. There are many people from the NE at
Delhi and other places who find your article reprehensible - so it is NOT
JUST ME.

People still await a sincere apology from you, Ms. Shukla. Do the right
thing.

Sincerely  once again with best wishes.

Ram Sarangapani
Texas, USA



On 7/18/08, ambika shukla ambikashukla at yahoo.com wrote:

   Please do not use this correspondence to establish yourself as some kind
 of champion of  the North Eastern 'underdog'. Try and find a more worthwhile
 windmill.

 Nobody made any 'sweeping statements' , what was said and is still
 maintained is that North Eastern students into which category Naga
 students fall -- have killed JNU campus dogs in the past and there are
 specific instances to prove this.  The intention is not to indict all
 N.E students but definitely those guilty of this crime.

 As far as eating dogs being  uncouth and uncivilised , yes, it is as is
 eating any animal which I have repeated several times in my column.  Instead
 of looking at this in such a narrow partisan fashion, open up your heart and
 mind.   The issue here is about atrocities against those weaker than
 oneself-- whether the victim is human or animal is irrelevant and largely a
 matter of opportunity. For it is the same people who would torture a dog who
 would hit a woman or bully a child.

 As for due process , that is what is being asked for. The University and
 police must not try and cover up a crime  simply because the victim was
 'only a dog'.

 The article is neither a discussion on the N.E., the army or indeed
 anything except the cruelty meted out to an animal by an insensitive lout
 who deserves to be punished to the maximum both legally and socially.

 If you cannot see that, please do not waste my time and your own any
 further.



 --- On *Fri, 7/18/08, Ram Sarangapani assamrs at gmail.com* wrote:

 From: Ram Sarangapani assamrs at gmail.com
 Subject: Re: Murder Most Foul - Pets
 To: ambikashukla at yahoo.com
 Date: Friday, July 18, 2008, 7:52 PM

  Dear Ms. Shukla,

 Thanks for you response. Frankly, I was not expecting any.

 It is surprising, that inspite of being a journalist, you still seem not to
 have got the message.

 That message is simple:

 (a) You make sweeping statements, indict whole sections of people. If still
 do not understand, go back and re-read what you wrote in the article
 regarding North Easterners regularly torturing and eating dogs. Probably
 meaning that they are uncouth, uneducated, unsophiticated and so on, and
 only someone like you will be able to teach them a thing or two?

 (b) You brag (and probably still do) about the fact that your Army husband
 used the Indian Army for personal use - combing the Naga countryside for
 your lost pet pooch, and of threatening the village headman of 'dire
 consequences'.

 This statement alone speaks volumes of how certain people still look down
 upon poorer and unfortunate sections of people. It is pure and
 simple condescension backed by some kind of power-trip.

 (c) You indicted, then seemed to have passed summary judgement and
 punishment on the Naga student.
 In your exburance to fight for animal rights  cruelty (a noble cause), you
 seem to have promptly forgotten something very basic to a democracy, called
 Due Process.

 If this was a crime, as you vehemently indicate, then go to court, prove
 it, and let the courts decide on the punishment. Are you the  judge, jury 
 executioneer?

 (d) Lastly, the whole thing has more to do with your 'holier than thou'
 attitude and your disregard for people from the NE, than the incident
 itself.

 My being an NRI, or other things have absolutely no bearing on the subject.
 If you are a sincere journalist, you will do the right thing for having
 hurt the sentiments of people from a number of States. And the right thing
 is to issue a quick, sincere apology by writing a retraction in the same
 Deccan Chronicle, maybe meet with the Assamese residents at Delhi and so on.

 Take care  once again with best wishes,

 Ram Sarangapani
 Texas, USA

  PS: I am copying this to Assam net - an online group

[Assam] Obama : Anti-Immigrants ? Should go back home in a box?

2008-06-12 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

What does democracy have to do with racism? Can't a
raging racist 
country be a a terrific democracy too?

The US DOS has a brief article on Democracy
(http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/whatsdem/whatdm2.htm)
 .  

As we see,  one of the pillar is Minority rights.   So
how a raging racist country can be a terrific
democracy ?  Probably you tried to explain it in your
other mail (quoted below)


*** A people can elect thugs, racists and
megalomaniacs to represent 
them.  Does not the Congress party  or the BJP condone
criminals 
among them as a necessary part of their 'democratic' 
ways?

---  So  you think India is a terrific democracy?  
Thank you for admitting it .



  

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[Assam] From TOI

2008-06-12 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

As for Chinese,  the per capita income is NOT far
behind Indians.  Per 1990 census,  Chinese were at 14K
while Indians at 17K.  I could not get hold of latest
figures but it would be safe to assume that it is
catching up since the recent migrations from China are
mostly in the high tech jobs.

Further,  if you attribute it to Economic conditions 
then you get your answer --- the whites are
economically better then recently migrated Indians ,
in general.



**
Yes I have.  And I know of those conditions, which are
also effected 
by the economic conditions of the people involved.

We were, however, talking of  Indians , whose economic
conditions, at 
least in the USA, are of a far higher caliber, per
capita; than these 
other communities'. Therefore the comparison does not
apply.











At 10:00 AM -0700 6/12/08, Krishnendu Chakraborty
wrote:
C'da,  have you been to Chinese dominated areas in US
(like Chinatown in Boston)  or the hispanic dominated
areas  (Chelsea or Revere near Boston) ?  I have been
to Devon and frequented to Oak Tree Road (Edison,
NJ).
  Those are clean compared to some pockets of Boston.

Not to defend desi community but it is same
everywhere
when you have a lot of people recently migrated from
a
third world country.




I  do believe that people have a capacity to learn
and
they usually
do.  But my own observations are that Indians take a
lng time to
learn civic lessons, particularly when they are in
any
concentration.

I am sure you know all too well about the environment
inside
transcontinental  flights in their last legs into
India, Ram. Don't
you?

I remember a desi-shopping center parking lot and
surroundings in
Houston from about three or four years back that
looked quite filthy.
There was trash all around. And I have witnesses,
from
Houston , who
will testify to that to you. They drove us there.

Similarly  on and around Devon Street of Chicago.

And last but not the least, right here at the Mahatma
Gandhi Center
of St. Louis after a gathering of certain
communities.
Being in the
Board of this facility I also know, first hand,  how
they trash the
place, remove property, stuff the toilets  --- you
name it. What was
even more disconcerting was when a Board Member of
the
Temple next
-door told me a few weeks back, in whispers, of the
horror stories
they experience, in their TEMPLE!

Is there something genetic here :-)?













At 10:54 AM -0500 6/12/08, Ram Sarangapani wrote:
   Like the Houston desi-enclave ( I am not sure
what
it is called), or
Devon Street area of Chicago, or Jackson Heights in
NY.  Are they
particularly unkempt, with trash strewn around for
example?

In Houston, we have the Harwin/Hilcroft area. The
area (at one time) had a
drap look. But today, modern shopping centers, and
mini malls have been
built (all by desis), and attracts shoppers from
many
parts of Texas (not
just desis though).

I remember, some years ago, there were several paan
dukanis (paan shops)
there, and desi paan chewers would spit (peek pelai)
the paan crud around
the shop. The city health dept. couldn't figure out
all the 'blood' around
the place... when they did, they gave a stiff
warning
to the paan dukani. It
doesn't happen now.

The Houston desi population is still small compared
to Southhall (London)
and so it has managed to keep clean even in areas
where there are higher
concentrations..

--Ram



On 6/12/08, Chan Mahanta cmahanta at charter.net
wrote:


   I was inquiring about heavily desi-immigrant
populated neighborhoods
   in the USA or Britain or such other western
countries.

   Like the Houston desi-enclave ( I am not sure
what
it is called), or
   Devon Street area of Chicago, or Jackson Heights
in NY.  Are they
   particularly unkempt, with trash strewn around
for
example?










   At 9:51 AM -0500 6/12/08, Ram Sarangapani wrote:
   C'da,

   *** Is there any reason for such a perception
among westerners or is it
   a
   case of racism?
   
   I don't think one can call it 'racism' but
rather
some sort of prejudice
   or perceived notion.
   
   If one were to visit certain parts of India,
citizens are least bothered
   about throwing garbage out of the windows and
on
to the streets.  Public
   sanitation and health is huge problem in India.

   Guwahati for instance, most will agree, that
while homes are usually very
   clean, the streets outside are strewn with
garbage  filth everywhere, and
   the Bharalu and the Brahmaputra are where
everything winds up in the end.
   
   I understand there are many reasons for this,
but
public apathy and lack
   of
   'ownership' of the surroundings must have
contributed something to the
   plight of Guwahati.
   
   The 'racism' part comes from some Westerners
when
they probably relate to
   what they see on TV about India, Africa, the
Sudan, and then see some
   Indians reiterating whats seen on TV

[Assam] Another View of Things/Who Pays the Price for India's Corporate Welfare?

2008-06-11 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

Here are the artcles ---  
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/04/MNSFT3BQ4.DTL

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1872176.cms

However, having stayed in Mumbai, I have seen the
other varities as well.

Near Bandra , there is a place named Sherley Rajan
village. Back in mid 90s , when I moved to Mumbai it
was a real village in concrete jungle   with tree
lined roads and cottages.   Later  I heard from a
co-worker that many of the residents were hounded by
real estate developers.  My co-worker's aunt was one
of them.Yes,  they were paid good amount of money
but they had to move against their will.

I have seen other vareity too ... where builders
rehabilitate slum dwellers in usually 1 bed apartments
 and in return get permission from Govt to add
additional floors to their buildings (called TDR
whatever that means).


***
Dilip-da,

Staying in Delhi area - esp Gurgaon is not much
different from staying in any place which has a very
vibrant civil society. I read such articles in Times
of India etc when I was in Delhi 1990-1996 , but I
recall they were about Delhi farmlands - where some
wise enough farmers did not buy brand new Mercedes
cars (which were as rare in India as are Rolls Royce
cars in the USA now) and invested in something more
useful.

Gurgaon is very much part of India's prime land and
the landowners are not meek mice - ignorant and
oppressed - but mostly Jats - the aggressive
warrior/farmer clan who shake Delhi. New Gurgaon has
been in around for over 15 years  now. 

http://www.gurgaonscoop.com/story/2007/12/18/23320/596

you might find it useful though. The ones I read were
before internet websites existed for these newpapers
(TOI etc). TOI website came about I think in 1998.

Umesh

Dilipamp;Dil Deka dilipdeka at yahoo.com wrote:
Umesh,
Do you know first hand that the land owners actually
sold or were compensated for the land  by the real
estate developers? The critics always say that the
land owners get evicted and end up on the street. Is
the truth somewhere in between?
Dilipda


- Original Message 
From: umesh sharma 
To: A Mailing list for people interested in Assam from
around the world 
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 11:08:57 AM
Subject: Re: [Assam] Another View of Things/Who Pays
the Price for India's Corporate Welfare?

It is similar to the question , Who pays the price
when all consumer goods in the US are MADE IN CHINA? 
Or Who pays the price when all software work is
outsourced?

I have to assume that it is from the same group of
people such a squestion has emerged. Somebody
somewhere has to pay the price.  Since you do not seem
to know much about how the new mini cities have come
about -- let me refresh your memories that the farmers
who sold their lands to these developers overnight
became rich. Many bought new Mercedes cars etc. Many
frittered away their wealth on trinkets .

Umesh

Chan Mahanta  wrote: This is a story related to the
issues involved in the NY Times 
article about the Good Life in Gurgaon. And it touches
on some of the 
points raised by Uttam, and how it impacts the PUBLIC
GOOD.

http://www.evb.ch/en/p25010663.html





  

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[Assam] Another View of Things/Who Pays the Price for India's Corporate Welfare?

2008-06-10 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

Couple of points

1) The TN govt DID NOT provide land at no cost. The
land was Free Hold instead of leased. The author does
not seem to understand the difference. (Refer
http://books.google.com/books?id=Au3R0DblY7wCpg=PA56lpg=PA56dq=ford+mahindra+tamil+nadu+exemptionsource=webots=p1RzEZNoXTsig=9T-FNqYOxcpPM6neQ6eLNZp5DKIhl=en#PPA57,M1
Page 56-57)

2) What the author fails to see is the anciliary
industries. For example , in case of Ford, the parts
suppliers of TN lobbied to get the Ford factory.
The ancialiary industries offer much more job then the
main industry.
We have seen this happening in Western and South India
and lately in WB.

3) The author says that the Govt offers Tailor Made
incentives which are secret. I am not sure how the
secret info on TN-Ford negotiation became public.
However, everywhere including US, Govt offeres
incentive to investors. The same report which I
referred to says about US (Page 60). It also says
that in US the negotiations are often done in a
clandestine manner.

4) The author says If, on the other hand, the state
had higher tax revenues, it could itself create jobs,
for example in the rural economy. However, what
the author fails to see (but even a layman can
understand) is that the potential of earning tax
depends on number of industries and jobs. So, if
the govt raise the tax to (say) 30% and there are
0 industries Govt will not have money even for basic
development not to talk of creating jobs. On the other
hand, by getting new industries, they are getting
corporate tax, and tax from anciliary industries.
Further, the subsidized electricity for Ford was only
for 4 years and after that the govt makes money out of
that too at industrial rate.

5) The original article which started this discussion
(NY Times article) praised Chinese model. However,
the Berne Declaration site (from which
http://www.evb.ch/en/p25010663.html has been picked
up) also cites article on Chinese model (by same
author). It says The Chinese economic miracle is
based on the exploitation of rural migrant workers.
(http://www.evb.ch/en/p25010664.html). Does that
mean ALL developing countries are going the wrong way?
I have seen some assam netters going ga-ga on Chinese
model while belittling all of Indian developments.
What is their view on this?

Does anyone have access to the McKinsey report which
the author refers to ?

This is a story related to the issues involved in the
NY Times
article about the Good Life in Gurgaon. And it touches
on some of the
points raised by Uttam, and how it impacts the PUBLIC
GOOD.

http://www.evb.ch/en/p25010663.html

Note:

A report by the McKinsey Global Institute came to
the conclusion
that the investment decision of corporations usually
was not
dependent upon these benefits. Especially in booming
markets like
India, corporations want to be present in any case,
but are
nonetheless happy to take advantage of the benefits
that are offered
to them. India's elites are not completely innocent:
The success of
having attracted a prestigious foreign corporation to
one's own state
is a great way to show off. It is India's poor who pay
the price.

***

Who Pays the Price for India's Corporate Welfare?
(28.01.06)

Two reasons are given for India's economic
attractiveness:
well-educated, inexpensive high-tech workers and a
booming internal
market. But there is a third, more important motive
that attracts
investors: the abundance of incentives and sweetners
offered by the
Indian government to foreign corporations.

Incredibly India: The Biggest Democracy for Global
Investors: With
this slogan, omnipresent in Davos, India takes a jab
at China and at
the same time makes clear: India is rolling out the
red carpet for
foreign investors. The enticements include tax breaks,
tariff relief
and inexpensive building sites already outfitted with
the necessary
infrastructure. Exemptions are also made to the
applicable
environmental and labor legislation. Since the
individual Indian
states are competing for investments, firms can
combine individual
and state benefits. And for large projects there are
not only the
standard incentives, but also tailor-made contracts
and incentive
packets, whose details remain secret.

The most extensive enticements are granted in the
special economic
zones, which are under the direct authority of the
central
government's Trade and Industry Ministry. Eleven such
regions already
exist, and a further 42 have been approved. The Trade
Minister
manages these zones himself; his colleagues in the
Departments of
Environment and Finance have no say. Former finance
minister Jaswant
Singh has complained, in vain, about the loss of tax
authority over
these zones.

Exemptions Without Rules
Labor

[Assam] Another View of Things/Who Pays the Price for India's Corporate Welfare?

2008-06-10 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

In addition to what I mentioned,  there are other
misleading info all throughout the article.  

1)  The article says (for SEZs) All corporate taxes
are waived for the  first five years,...  This is NOT
true.  the Income tax is waived ONLY for export 
income (http://sezindia.nic.in/HTMLS/about.htm).


2) The artcile says  Labor laws find only a
rudimentary application in the special economic
zones.  However,  the SEZ Rule says  The Developer
shall abide by the local laws, rules, regulations or
bye-laws in regard to area planning, sewerage
disposal, pollution control, labour laws and the like
as may be locally applicable.



As a matter of fact, I could not verify many of the
claims by the author after going through the SEZ Rule
and Act.


It probably does not make much sense to pick up an
article by any Tom, Dick, Harry in an attempt to paint
India in black.



--- Krishnendu Chakraborty [EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:

 Couple of points   
 
 1)  The TN govt DID NOT provide land at no cost. 
 The
 land was Free Hold instead of leased.  The author
 does
 not seem to understand the difference.  (Refer

http://books.google.com/books?id=Au3R0DblY7wCpg=PA56lpg=PA56dq=ford+mahindra+tamil+nadu+exemptionsource=webots=p1RzEZNoXTsig=9T-FNqYOxcpPM6neQ6eLNZp5DKIhl=en#PPA57,M1
   Page 56-57)
 
 
 2) What the author fails to see is the anciliary
 industries. For example ,  in case of Ford,  the
 parts
 suppliers of TN lobbied to get the Ford factory.   
 The ancialiary industries offer much more job then
 the
 main industry.  
 We have seen this happening in Western and South
 India
 and lately in WB.  
 
 
 3) The author says that the Govt offers Tailor Made
 incentives which are secret.  I am not sure how the
 secret info on TN-Ford negotiation became public. 
 
 However,  everywhere including US, Govt offeres
 incentive to investors.  The same report which I
 referred to says about US (Page 60).  It also says
 that in US the negotiations are often done in a
 clandestine manner. 
 
 
 4)  The author says If, on the other hand, the
 state
 had higher tax revenues, it could itself create
 jobs,
 for example in the rural economy.   However,  what
 the author fails to see (but even a layman can
 understand)  is that the potential of earning tax
 depends on number of industries and jobs.  So,   if
 the govt raise the tax to (say) 30% and there
 are
 0 industries Govt will not have money even for basic
 development not to talk of creating jobs. On the
 other
 hand,  by getting new industries, they are getting
 corporate tax, and tax from anciliary industries.
 Further,  the subsidized electricity for Ford was
 only
 for 4 years and after that the govt makes money out
 of
 that too  at industrial rate.
 
 5) The original article which started this
 discussion
 (NY Times article) praised Chinese model.  However, 
 the Berne Declaration site (from which
 http://www.evb.ch/en/p25010663.html has been picked
 up)  also cites article on Chinese model (by same
 author).  It says   The Chinese economic miracle
 is
 based on the exploitation of rural migrant workers.
 
 (http://www.evb.ch/en/p25010664.html).   Does that
 mean ALL developing countries are going the wrong
 way?
  I have seen some assam netters going ga-ga on
 Chinese
 model while belittling all of Indian developments. 
 What is their view on this?  
 
 
 
 Does anyone have access to the McKinsey report which
 the author refers to ?
 
 
 
 


 
 This is a story related to the issues involved in
 the
 NY Times 
 article about the Good Life in Gurgaon. And it
 touches
 on some of the 
 points raised by Uttam, and how it impacts the
 PUBLIC
 GOOD.
 
 http://www.evb.ch/en/p25010663.html
 
 
 
 Note:
 
   A report by the McKinsey Global Institute came to
 the conclusion 
 that the investment decision of corporations usually
 was not 
 dependent upon these benefits. Especially in booming
 markets like 
 India, corporations want to be present in any case,
 but are 
 nonetheless happy to take advantage of the benefits
 that are offered 
 to them. India's elites are not completely innocent:
 The success of 
 having attracted a prestigious foreign corporation
 to
 one's own state 
 is a great way to show off. It is India's poor who
 pay
 the price.
 
 cm
 

***
 
 Who Pays the Price for India's Corporate Welfare? 
 (28.01.06)
 
 
 
 Two reasons are given for India's economic
 attractiveness: 
 well-educated, inexpensive high-tech workers and a
 booming internal 
 market. But there is a third, more important motive
 that attracts 
 investors: the abundance of incentives and sweetners
 offered by the 
 Indian government to foreign corporations.
 
 Incredibly India: The Biggest Democracy for Global
 Investors: With 
 this slogan, omnipresent in Davos, India takes a jab
 at China and at 
 the same time makes

[Assam] Help Please!

2008-06-09 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

Most likely yes.   If not,  a technician will be able
to hack the DVD player easily.

DVD's use Region code (US Code 1)  but most Indian DVD
players are code free.

If you are travelling,  best thing is to carry a DVD
player.  Get the cheaper ones like Cyberhome or
Durabuilt (Walmart brand)  which are dual volt.





A simple question..
 
The regular store bought (from Best Buy, Circuit
City, Wal-Mart etc.) DVDs here in the US - would
they play in the DVD players that are available in
Guwahati? 
 
Thanks much!



  

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[Assam] NYTimes.com: Inside Gate, India's Good Life; Outside, the Servants' Slums

2008-06-09 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

At risk of offending some people a report from
Mckinsey---

http://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/mginews/bigspenders.asp

Quote--

One of our most striking findings is how dramatically
recent growth has reduced the numbers of the poorest
Indians, a group we call the deprived. 
 



At 5:45 PM -0500 6/9/08, Alpana B. Sarangapani wrote:
Are we talking about these in greater sense or in an
Indian setting?


*** I don't know about others, but my comments are
specific to the 
issues involved with the article--the locale, the
people, and their 
unique condition.


  
If corruption is eradicated, some of these private
monies would 
become public again.


*** OK!
Who will do that? I hope it is not PRIVATE CAPITAL to
the rescue again.



  That is only in philosophy.
After all, we are only humans.
How much can one do?
We just can't. We need to be realistic.


*** I don't deal with such abstract concepts as
philosophy. Goes 
right over my head. I am  more about
tangible issues, about real problems and real
solutions.

So are we suggesting here that on account of  this
'humanity' of ours 
we ought to ignore the humanity of others, as those
that were pointed 
out in the article?






If corruption is eradicated, some of these private
monies would 
become public again.

  And WHY should private entities be held
responsible for the 
PUBLIC  authorities' dereliction of duty in not
providing such 
fundamental needs as drinking water, public 
healthcare, 
sanitation, basic education?
Right.

And these are the things that come into mind -

That is only in philosophy.
After all, we are only humans.
How much can one do?
We just can't.
We need to be realistic.












In order to make spiritual progress you must be
patient like a tree 
and humble like a blade of grass.





  Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2008 16:42:02 -0500 To: assam at
assamnet.org 
From: cmahanta at charter.net Subject: Re: [Assam]
NYTimes.com: 
Inside Gate, India's Good Life; Outside, the
Servants' Slums  I 
think we are missing the point here. It is not a
question of  
whether it is PRIVATE funding.  But what is
PRIVATE? And how does 
it correlate with what might be PUBLIC?  Take the
very simple 
example Uttam provided: If this private capital 
came from a 
minister's bribes or swindling of public funds, is
it  still 
PRIVATE ?  If your private capital is a result of
corporate 
welfare practised by  India, a forced transfer
public resources 
for private enrichment, is  it still PRIVATE?  If
this private 
wealth is a result of legislated market protection,
 eliminating 
competition, is it still PRIVATE?  If the
government gives 
subsidies to selected industries and  enriches
certain 
individuals, is their loot still PRIVATE?  If the
govts. 
dereliction of duty results in private for-profit 
schools and 
hospitals which enrich a few, is their wealth still
 PRIVATE?  
If the govt. gives huge tax benefits to certain
private corporate  
entities and thereby enriching its owners, is their
loot still  
PRIVATE?  If the govt. fails to provide drinking
water to the 
public, and  private suppliers pump the aquifers
dry, and enrich 
themselves by  selling this essential commodity for
life, is their 
profit still  PRIVATE?  There is plenty more. I
am sure you 
catch my drift.  Just because we choose to call
something private 
NOT necessarily so.   And WHY should private
entities be held 
responsible for the PUBLIC  authorities'
dereliction of duty in 
not providing such fundamental needs as drinking
water, public  
healthcare, sanitation, basic 
education? At 11:07
AM -0700 
6/9/08, Dilipamp;Dil Deka wrote: If you have
doubts about 
private money financing IPL, please read  the
following. You 
don't need to read all 100 things to get an idea.
I'll also check 
into the Gurgaon gated apartment complex to find out
 how it was 
financed. Hopefully it will prove my point about
private  money 
being used for many such projects. Entrepreneurship
and 
free  enterprise have moved into the rest of India
in a far more 
serious  manner than in Assam. Dilip 
Deka
=
Thursday, 
April 17, 2008 100 Things about Indian Premier
League 
(IPL) Indian Premier League (IPL) has created a
lot of attention 
in the  cricket world. In India, almost all the TV
news channels 
are giving  information about IPL. Many websites
and newspapers 
have also given  substantial coverage to IPL 2008.
Here in this 
blog, we are very  busy with our last minutes
effort too. We have 
tried to give a lot  of information and point you
to some useful 
things. Now, we have  taken an effort to compile a
list of 100 
things about Indian Premier  League (IPL). Here,
you will find 
links to some useful articles,  reports, entries
etc. 1. Indian 
Premier League (IPL) is the richest cricket
tournament in the 
world. 2. BCCI is the organizer of IPL. 3. IPL
will start on 18 
April 2008. 4. The opening ceremony will take
place in 
Bangalore.

[Assam] Ripun Bora

2008-06-06 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

Ram-da

I do not think that an average Assamese (or Indian) 
think that Bora is the *ONLY* corrupt politician.  
However,  since he was caught the attention turned to
him.   All your arguments that he might have been
trapped or CBI is also corrupt etc are valid  but the
questions remain  1) Why did he ask a CBI officer
from Kolkata to meet him in Delhi ? 2)  Why was a
journalist from Assam accompanying him to Delhi?  Was
it an official assignment of the journo ?

Think about the recent case of NY Governor who had to
resign because of a sex scandal.  Did the media wait
for due process etc before turning the attention to
him ... 

Public figures enjoy a lot of privileges but one
missed step and they end up being the most despicable
person.


You assumed he did Wrong and that is why he was
arrested.

Arrests all over the world are largely based on some
degree of ASSUMPTION  that someone committed a crime. 
 The court decides if the assumption is correct.  




You are taking shelter under the fallacy that two
wrongs  make a right.The
fact that most politicians are corrupt does not mean
that Bora has one
right
to fill his pocket with ill-gotten money

Am I? You are trying to put words in my mouth. When
did I ever claim the
above or argue that Bora or anyone for that matter
has that right and I
hope, I don't look stupid as I look!

Let us look at this exchange between you and me below:

*You:The bottom line is---  Bora was
apprehended because of the
fact
   that he did something wrong.
*
*Me:* Really, the others don't do anything
wrong? Or is it they
simply did not get caught, and  Bora did? IMHO Bora's
crime was being
stupid to get caught or getting placed in a situation
where he could be ID
ed.

You assumed he did Wrong and that is why he was
arrested. IF that is the
standard in India, the jails would be full. My
question is this, why aren't
others who do wrong also arrested?.


--Ram


On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 6:05 PM, kamal deka kjit.deka
at gmail.com wrote:

 You are taking shelter under the fallacy that two
wrongs  make a right.The
 fact that most politicians are corrupt does not mean
that Bora has one
 right
 to fill his pocket with ill-gotten money.The issue
of corruption,a vital
 one,is a different kettle of fish .After scanning
media reports,I don't
 find
 an iota of indication that the sting operation was
carried out on account
 of
 personal vendetta.What I do best is collate
information and draw my own
 inference.
  KJD





  

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[Assam] Ripun Bora

2008-06-06 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

Hi Ram-da

I would say it would be naive to be prejudiced based
on what one was during the student days.  During those
days most people are  idealistic  and covered with a
romanticism to change the world.  Days change and
people do change.

One good example of this is the AGP leaders who were
considered the saviour of Assam during the agitation
days (they were AASU leaders then).

About the benefit of doubt --   had it not been Ripun
Bora would you think about giving him benefit of
doubt.  Did you think about benefit of doubt when (for
example) Lalu got involved in the fodder scam .   
I understand your psychology   you have seen a
honest person and so now it becomes difficult to 
imagine that he can do any wrong.  But think from
other's angle ... people who see that 99% of
politicians are corrupt . Why they would give him a
benefit of doubt ?


There are news reports quoting Topno's mother that
Bora offered them money to drop the case  asking for
CBI probe . Is it a part of the game ? May be. 

Bora's current declared asset is over one crore
including two flats in Delhi's posh Vasant Kunj 
(which are grossly under valued) without any loan. 
What is the salary of an ACS ? And remember ,  that is
just the declared Asset.  

As for the journo being in Delhi ,had it not been
real would the media not side with their colleague ?

I am with you in the hope that he gets a fair trial
but as for Media sensalization,  I would not be too
hopeful.  As I showed earlier, be in US or India,
public figures would remain focus of Media in such
cases.





Hi KC,

Let me try to answer as best as I can. First things
first, though. I should
outright say that I have known Ripun since our Cotton
College days. We are
good friends. I have always enquired about him, and
he has of me thru other
friends.

Of course, I have not seen him for well over 25 years.
As colleagues, we
knew him to be one of the best to have around -
sensitive, caring, and
honest. So, this thing does come as a jolt to us. But
I have been trying to
be fair, and at the same time trying to give him the
benefit of doubt.

I know that many here (on this net) and the media have
already condemned and
possibily convicted him - just wondering if Assam
netters (some of the most
intelligent people are here) could also afford him
that benefit of doubt -
but maybe I am wrong and asking for too much:)

Yes, you are correct that arrests are made on the
assumption of guilt - but
that is for the authorities, that is how it works.
There is a process, and
let Bora go thru that.

But as statement like he was arrested because he did
something wrong tells
me that

(a) innocent people are never arrested and (b) what
the CBI tells us is the
Gospel, and it is somehow the last bastion of truth.

1) Why did he ask a CBI officer from Kolkata to meet
him in Delhi ? 2)  Why
was a
journalist from Assam accompanying him to Delhi?  Was
it an official
assignment of the journo ?

Yeah, I read these too.  But who is saying this? The
CBI (which you also say
is considered corrupt)?

There have been a number of times even over this very
net, in situations
like this, people on this net have asked the system
play out (even though
there may be a corrupt system), but with Bora's case,
some seem to be more
than willing to get a rope.

Think about the recent case of NY Governor who had to
resign because of a sex scandal.  Did the media wait
for due process etc before turning the attention to
him ...

I hope there is a big difference between how the media
thinks and how common
folks like us think.

Maybe its hope against hope, but I do hope he gets a
fair trial, and a fair
pre-trial sensationalism, if thats not asking too
much.

--Ram da


On Fri, Jun 6, 2008 at 12:42 PM, Krishnendu
Chakraborty krish_gau at yahoo.com
wrote:

 Ram-da

 I do not think that an average Assamese (or Indian)
 think that Bora is the *ONLY* corrupt politician.
 However,  since he was caught the attention turned
to
 him.   All your arguments that he might have been
 trapped or CBI is also corrupt etc are valid  but
the
 questions remain  1) Why did he ask a CBI
officer
 from Kolkata to meet him in Delhi ? 2)  Why was a
 journalist from Assam accompanying him to Delhi? 
Was
 it an official assignment of the journo ?

 Think about the recent case of NY Governor who had
to
 resign because of a sex scandal.  Did the media wait
 for due process etc before turning the attention to
 him ...

 Public figures enjoy a lot of privileges but one
 missed step and they end up being the most
despicable
 person.


 You assumed he did Wrong and that is why he was
 arrested.

 Arrests all over the world are largely based on some
 degree of ASSUMPTION  that someone committed a
crime.
  The court decides if the assumption is correct.




 You are taking shelter under the fallacy that two
 wrongs  make a right.The
 fact that most politicians are corrupt does not
mean
 that Bora has one
 right
 to fill his pocket with ill-gotten money

 Am

[Assam] The other side of USPS

2008-04-28 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

My bad.  I forgot that you are an Amerikaan and not an
Assamese :)  Or may be ,  I thought you have taken up
the arduous task of fixing flaws of USPS :-)

I am aware of this Amerikaan Mannerism  but in my
experience I always heard something like -  I would
have  done this   instead of  I will ...   . 
Learning never ends.  

Going to the  top indeed help as have been my
experience with MTNL, Mumbai (new phone activated in
less then 30 minutes once I met the DGM).

The good news is,  Fedex turned to be much better then
USPS in customer Service.  They have rectified the
duplicate billing issue.  Yet to work out the Service
Guarantee refund but I am hopeful that Fedex will work
it out.  

I have found a simpler solution than writing to Post
Master or Congressman . stick to UPS for time
sensitive international mail.




*** When I wrote I will write to my Congressman  or
 --- to my 
Post Master ---  , it is a polite way of saying you
should be doing 
that. It is an American mannerism, 'kothaar maat'.

I wish I could help. But I am too bust  with too many
different 
things.  I am sure you are quite able to pursue it on
your on. Good 
luck.

If the Post Master  gives you the run-around, which I
don't expect 
him to, a call to the elected rep. does wonders. A
few years back, we 
could not get cable in our house. After two years of
getting the run 
around from the cable company ( because the house
sets back more than 
the 200 feet or so that they are required to string
cables to) I 
called our County Councilman's office. The clerk made
one call and we 
got cable within the next two weeks. Did not even
have to pay the 
extra fees for 200 yards of cable laying that I
anticipated paying.

I told the story to my fellow Board Members of our
large neighborhood 
association about a a year or so back. Our leader
remembered it. He 
too had been having the same problem. So he inquired
again how 
exactly I got results. Told him again. He called the
same 
Councilman's office, and voila--a month later he had
cable.













At 12:35 PM -0700 4/25/08, Krishnendu Chakraborty
wrote:
Thanks C'da.  I have sent all details (dates,
locations etc) to you separately.   Please keep us
posted on the progress/response.

USPS domestic service is great but for International
Service I found UPS to be more reliable. 
An occassional miss (by USPS, Fedex, UPS ,  any body)
is perfectly understandable but the attitude of
passing the buck is definitely not acceptable ...
particularly when you are paying such a high service
charge.

Did you use the same service (GXG) or the regular
Postal Service?  How was the delivery ? Did they
stick
to commitment?



  I would compile the facts, and send it to my
  Congressman. And follow
  up with him/her in two weeks or so.



 




  

Be a better friend, newshound, and 
know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.  Try it now.  
http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ

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[Assam] The other side of USPS

2008-04-28 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

USPS-Fedex collaboration is cheaper then Fedex for an
average customer. 

However,  I was talking about UPS (Not USPS or Fedex)
which I have used a couple of times.  The service have
been good and the cost is not too high .  For a 0.5 lb
package, UPS charges around $55 against the $38 or so
by USPS-Fedex collaboration.  I just got hooked by the
USPS low cost .

BTW,  the minimum cost for Fedex (0.5 lbs) is around
$58  not $75.  
Also,  USPS International Express Service guarantees
delivery only in a very limited set of countries
(Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Korea).  This
info is as per guidelines published in USPS website
... http://pe.usps.com/text/imm/immc2_008.htm .




*** Yes of course, Fedex could be expected to be a
better service 
provider than the USPS, and that's why they also cost
a whole lot 
more.

I saw a big poster in our neighborhood, by no means a
high-rent 
district, that showed the various services USPS
provides , including 
the FedEx collaborated Guaranteed three( ?)  business
days service, 
which cost the same ( $ 75.00 ??) as FedEx.  Under the
circumstances, 
why would one want to go the USPS route, if the cost
is same as 
FedEx's?

I used the USPS International Express service that
guarantees seven 
business days delivery, which cost $ 27.00-- a big
saving from the $ 
75.00 Fedex collaborated three bus. days guaranteed
svc.



  . stick to UPS for time
sensitive international mail.

*** Did you mean Fedex? or UPS ( as opposed to USPS)
?

--- Krishnendu Chakraborty [EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:

 My bad.  I forgot that you are an Amerikaan and not
 an
 Assamese :)  Or may be ,  I thought you have taken
 up
 the arduous task of fixing flaws of USPS :-)
 
 I am aware of this Amerikaan Mannerism  but in my
 experience I always heard something like -  I would
 have  done this   instead of  I will ...   . 
 Learning never ends.  
 
 Going to the  top indeed help as have been my
 experience with MTNL, Mumbai (new phone activated in
 less then 30 minutes once I met the DGM).
 
 The good news is,  Fedex turned to be much better
 then
 USPS in customer Service.  They have rectified the
 duplicate billing issue.  Yet to work out the
 Service
 Guarantee refund but I am hopeful that Fedex will
 work
 it out.  
 
 I have found a simpler solution than writing to Post
 Master or Congressman . stick to UPS for time
 sensitive international mail.
 
 
 
 
 *** When I wrote I will write to my Congressman 
 or
  --- to my 
 Post Master ---  , it is a polite way of saying
 you
 should be doing 
 that. It is an American mannerism, 'kothaar maat'.
 
 I wish I could help. But I am too bust  with too
 many
 different 
 things.  I am sure you are quite able to pursue it
 on
 your on. Good 
 luck.
 
 If the Post Master  gives you the run-around, which
 I
 don't expect 
 him to, a call to the elected rep. does wonders. A
 few years back, we 
 could not get cable in our house. After two years
 of
 getting the run 
 around from the cable company ( because the house
 sets back more than 
 the 200 feet or so that they are required to string
 cables to) I 
 called our County Councilman's office. The clerk
 made
 one call and we 
 got cable within the next two weeks. Did not even
 have to pay the 
 extra fees for 200 yards of cable laying that I
 anticipated paying.
 
 I told the story to my fellow Board Members of our
 large neighborhood 
 association about a a year or so back. Our leader
 remembered it. He 
 too had been having the same problem. So he
 inquired
 again how 
 exactly I got results. Told him again. He called
 the
 same 
 Councilman's office, and voila--a month later he
 had
 cable.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 At 12:35 PM -0700 4/25/08, Krishnendu Chakraborty
 wrote:
 Thanks C'da.  I have sent all details (dates,
 locations etc) to you separately.   Please keep us
 posted on the progress/response.
 
 USPS domestic service is great but for
 International
 Service I found UPS to be more reliable. 
 An occassional miss (by USPS, Fedex, UPS ,  any
 body)
 is perfectly understandable but the attitude of
 passing the buck is definitely not acceptable ...
 particularly when you are paying such a high
 service
 charge.
 
 Did you use the same service (GXG) or the regular
 Postal Service?  How was the delivery ? Did they
 stick
 to commitment?
 
 
 
   I would compile the facts, and send it to my
   Congressman. And follow
   up with him/her in two weeks or so.
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
  


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[Assam] Bus. Week: Can Guwahati/Mexico replace Bangalore -else business go to Mexico

2008-04-28 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

I have known softek as a competitor since a long time.
 They have displaced major Indian IT players from a
number of key engagements .  Apart from cost,  they
also have the time zone advantage because of which
they play with a very large offshore  setup driving
the cost lower.  For India it will mean a huge number
of people working night shift which is difficult
particularly for senior level people.

India would definitely gain moving to smaller places
and I can see some such moves to tier 2 cities like
Trivandram, Mysore , Bhubaneswar etc.  would love to
see Guwahati, Jorhat etc added to this list. 
You are unlikely to get people at quarter salary but
some reduction can be expected.

BTW,  I did not know Jaipur is that expensive . I
thought Mumbai is the most expensive place in India.


Maybe higher salaries will kill Indian IT industry -
maybe new areas like Guwahati can come up where
hi-tech people are ready to work at half/quarter
price compared to Bangalore - subletting of
outsourcing from the US.
Umesh
PS: Bangalore has long been the costliest city in
India - followed by desert based Jaipur, Ajmer etc(
where food has to be brought in from outside).


The New Economics of OutsourcingEfforts to send
IT work anywhere but Bangalore are taking on added
urgency as costs of doing work in India rise and the
dollar sinks   
by Rachael King
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2008/tc2008043_531737.htm



  

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[Assam] The other side of USPS

Inspired by the positive experience of C'da,  I
decided to try USPS for a time sensitive document
which I was sending to Guwahati. 

USPS has a new service named GXG (Global Express
Guaranteed)  which is a tie up with Fedex for
guaranteed delivery.   Accessed USPS website, paid
online and then took the package to nearest USPS.  
The clerk did not seem to have heard of GXG  and I had
to explain him.  

The package was delivered one day later then commited
date and when I called up USPS for claim, they
transferred me (apparently to Fedex)  and the refund
for service failure was approved.   

After two weeks,  I received an invoice from Fedex
stating that USPS did not pay them and so it is my
responsibility !  The invoice  showed significantly
higher weight (then what was assessed by USPS)  and
thereby huge additional charges.   The invoice also
mentioned that the delivery delay was weather related
and so no refund .  This was nonsense.  The package
was sitting in Delhi for 3 days before it was sent to
Guwahati (as available from Fedex online tracker)  and
there was not a drop of rain in Delhi or Guwahati
during those 3 days. Apparently Fedex is trying  to
take advantage of a thunderstorm in their hub Memphis
after the package left Memphis.
So now,  they are not only refusing to honor the
guarantee but also double billing me ... once through
USPS  and again through Fedex that too a much higher
charge (more then double)  then what was commited

So where is USPS to be blamed ???

Called up USPS regarding the issue and they flatly
denied any help.  According to them I should resolve
it with Fedex.   When I tried to explain  that I have
never contracted with Fedex,  I am a customer of USPS
and they should own the responsibility, they hung up.
Called up Fedex (number on Invoice)  and they gave
another number to call.  The second number ends in a
voice mail !

As of now,  I have sent emails to Fedex and USPS and
waiting for reply .


  

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[Assam] The other side of USPS

There are Small claims Court in US  which I can
approach.  However,  it would require me to take a day
off for hearing apart from the hassles of filing,
serving etc. It is not worth for this kind of money
(around $100). There are further restrictions when
your case is against a Government entity (USPS)

I would probably lodge an online complain to Federal
Trade Commission (FTC) rather then going to Small
Claim and see how it goes.  What I don't know is,  if
FTC entertains  complaints against Government Entities
(USPS)?

bgogoi at gmail.com 

is there a kind of Consumer Court (here in India it
is quite effective for
such things) there to file a case on such incidents?

--- Krishnendu Chakraborty [EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:

 Inspired by the positive experience of C'da,  I
 decided to try USPS for a time sensitive document
 which I was sending to Guwahati. 
 
 USPS has a new service named GXG (Global Express
 Guaranteed)  which is a tie up with Fedex for
 guaranteed delivery.   Accessed USPS website, paid
 online and then took the package to nearest USPS.  
 The clerk did not seem to have heard of GXG  and I
 had
 to explain him.  
 
 The package was delivered one day later then
 commited
 date and when I called up USPS for claim, they
 transferred me (apparently to Fedex)  and the refund
 for service failure was approved.   
 
 After two weeks,  I received an invoice from Fedex
 stating that USPS did not pay them and so it is my
 responsibility !  The invoice  showed significantly
 higher weight (then what was assessed by USPS)  and
 thereby huge additional charges.   The invoice also
 mentioned that the delivery delay was weather
 related
 and so no refund .  This was nonsense.  The package
 was sitting in Delhi for 3 days before it was sent
 to
 Guwahati (as available from Fedex online tracker) 
 and
 there was not a drop of rain in Delhi or Guwahati
 during those 3 days. Apparently Fedex is trying  to
 take advantage of a thunderstorm in their hub
 Memphis
 after the package left Memphis.
 So now,  they are not only refusing to honor the
 guarantee but also double billing me ... once
 through
 USPS  and again through Fedex that too a much higher
 charge (more then double)  then what was commited
 
 So where is USPS to be blamed ???
 
 Called up USPS regarding the issue and they flatly
 denied any help.  According to them I should resolve
 it with Fedex.   When I tried to explain  that I
 have
 never contracted with Fedex,  I am a customer of
 USPS
 and they should own the responsibility, they hung
 up.
 Called up Fedex (number on Invoice)  and they gave
 another number to call.  The second number ends in a
 voice mail !
 
 As of now,  I have sent emails to Fedex and USPS and
 waiting for reply .
 
 
  


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 know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.  Try it now. 

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[Assam] The other side of USPS

Alas   life is not that simple :(

If I do not pay or do not resolve the issue, Fedex
will simply send it to a Collection Agent and the
Collection Agent will add his mark up and send it to
me for collection.   That will create a negative mark
on my Credit Report (which causes a lot of difficulty
in this country).
It will then be a bigger hassle to deal with.


 -- bgogoi at gmail.com 

I think you should wait for Fedex to file a case
against you, which they
will never do!!


--- Krishnendu Chakraborty [EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:

 There are Small claims Court in US  which I can
 approach.  However,  it would require me to take a
 day
 off for hearing apart from the hassles of filing,
 serving etc. It is not worth for this kind of money
 (around $100). There are further restrictions when
 your case is against a Government entity (USPS)
 
 I would probably lodge an online complain to Federal
 Trade Commission (FTC) rather then going to Small
 Claim and see how it goes.  What I don't know is, 
 if
 FTC entertains  complaints against Government
 Entities
 (USPS)?
 
 bgogoi at gmail.com 
 
 is there a kind of Consumer Court (here in India it
 is quite effective for
 such things) there to file a case on such
 incidents?
 
 --- Krishnendu Chakraborty [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:
 
  Inspired by the positive experience of C'da,  I
  decided to try USPS for a time sensitive document
  which I was sending to Guwahati. 
  
  USPS has a new service named GXG (Global Express
  Guaranteed)  which is a tie up with Fedex for
  guaranteed delivery.   Accessed USPS website, paid
  online and then took the package to nearest USPS. 
 
  The clerk did not seem to have heard of GXG  and I
  had
  to explain him.  
  
  The package was delivered one day later then
  commited
  date and when I called up USPS for claim, they
  transferred me (apparently to Fedex)  and the
 refund
  for service failure was approved.   
  
  After two weeks,  I received an invoice from Fedex
  stating that USPS did not pay them and so it is my
  responsibility !  The invoice  showed
 significantly
  higher weight (then what was assessed by USPS) 
 and
  thereby huge additional charges.   The invoice
 also
  mentioned that the delivery delay was weather
  related
  and so no refund .  This was nonsense.  The
 package
  was sitting in Delhi for 3 days before it was sent
  to
  Guwahati (as available from Fedex online tracker) 
  and
  there was not a drop of rain in Delhi or Guwahati
  during those 3 days. Apparently Fedex is trying 
 to
  take advantage of a thunderstorm in their hub
  Memphis
  after the package left Memphis.
  So now,  they are not only refusing to honor the
  guarantee but also double billing me ... once
  through
  USPS  and again through Fedex that too a much
 higher
  charge (more then double)  then what was commited
  
  So where is USPS to be blamed ???
  
  Called up USPS regarding the issue and they flatly
  denied any help.  According to them I should
 resolve
  it with Fedex.   When I tried to explain  that I
  have
  never contracted with Fedex,  I am a customer of
  USPS
  and they should own the responsibility, they hung
  up.
  Called up Fedex (number on Invoice)  and they gave
  another number to call.  The second number ends in
 a
  voice mail !
  
  As of now,  I have sent emails to Fedex and USPS
 and
  waiting for reply .
  
  
   
 


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  know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.  Try it now. 
 

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[Assam] The other side of USPS


Thanks C'da.  I have sent all details (dates,
locations etc) to you separately.   Please keep us
posted on the progress/response. 
 
USPS domestic service is great but for International
Service I found UPS to be more reliable.  
An occassional miss (by USPS, Fedex, UPS ,  any body) 
is perfectly understandable but the attitude of
passing the buck is definitely not acceptable ...
particularly when you are paying such a high service
charge.

Did you use the same service (GXG) or the regular
Postal Service?  How was the delivery ? Did they stick
to commitment?

 
 
 I would compile the facts, and send it to my
 Congressman. And follow 
 up with him/her in two weeks or so.
 
 
 
  


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 know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.  Try it now. 

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[Assam] Swaminomics - TOI

2008-04-14 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

Ram-da,

It is interesting --- the same TOI says that the
highest tax rate was 25% upto 1970-71 !

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Business/Income_tax_rates_today_are_the_lowest_ever/rssarticleshow/2835163.cms




Its tax-time here, and thought this column from the
TOI might shed some
light on how people in India fare. Highlights are
mine.

I just can't believe that the highest tax rate in
the 70's was 97.75%.  And
then this *then the maximum he could earn after
taxes, no matter how great
his assets, was just Rs 25,000 a year! *
**
If that was true, that I am sure was one major cause
for the growth and
development of an underground economy  black money.
One can't render
everything to Caesar!
**
Well, thank heavens the rate today is 34% percent.

--Ram



  

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[Assam] Two Orchids from Assam

2008-04-10 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

WB, Karnataka and TN are the major exporters of flower
from India.  The flowers are exported to European
countries (including UK), Middle East, SA, Far East
etc.   The business get a lot of support from State
Government including  cold storage.The State
Government in these states prefer not to wait for GOI
to do everything for them.


Phytosanitary  certification  from India are
recognized in US and that's how Indian Mangoes are now
being imported in US. However,  the last I knew was
there is just one lab in India.

I must say that the orchids are beautifull but the
beauty has been magnified manifold by the eye behind
the lens.

It is a very complicated issue Uttam.

Orchids are very special plants. Their cultural
requirements are very 
demanding. You can keep them alive and even make
them grow well out 
of their natural habitats, but you may not be able
to make them 
bloom. Kopou-ful ( Rhynchostylis retusa)  is almost
impossible to 
bring to bloom, even in a simple green house like
ours. It needs 
precise temperature , humidity and brightness of
light conditions 
that can be replicated only in a very sophisticated
greenhouse.

International laws prohibit collecting, owning,
selling or exporting 
of orchids from their natural habitats. Only
commercially grown 
orchids can be exported or imported. And to import to
the USA the 
exporter must be able to furnish proof that:

A: It is commercially grown and can be certified in
accordance with 
CITES regulations.

B: That the plants are not contaminated with organisms
such as fungi, 
bacteria or viruses. This is done by  producing  what
is called 
phytosanitary certification from an accredited
laboratory.

Among the many orchid producing countries of the world
India and 
Bangladesh are the only ones that I know of that do
not have lab. 
facilities that would be recognized by the USA. So no
orchid export 
takes place, legally, from India to the USA.


Incidentally, almost all but the rarest of rare or
endangered orchids 
that grow in south Asia can be purchased from many
orchid growers 
across the USA, Europe, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore,
Taiwan etc. 
They are not even as expensive as some of the hybrids.
The reasons 
are several:

A: Orchids from Assam and the surrounding region are
what is called 
species orchids--not hybrids. They are pure. But
they are not easy 
to care for, have stringent cultural needs.

B: As showy as our orchids are, the flowers are short
lived, compared 
to many orchids from other regions.

The two orchids whose pictures I posted here will
last, at most,  two 
weeks. That is nothing compared to some or hybrid
Dendrobiums  or 
Phalaenopses or Cymbidiums or Oncidiums that routinely
last two to 
three months. BTW some varieties of the latter two
grow in the wilds 
of Arunachal as well as the Khasi Hills. The only
cymbidiums we see 
in the Brahmaputra valley are those that grow on the
trunks and 
branches of huge trees  that produce little and
not-so-attractive 
flowers on long pendulous growths. These are called
Cymbidium 
pendulata. Even though these are not showy, they are
sought after by 
breeders for cross breeding to produce more attractive
hybrids. But 
they are extremely difficult to bring to bloom in
temperate climates. 
I have had a large plant for years, but no flowers!

Commercial orchid growing, both as cut flowers as well
as plants have 
a great potential in Assam,. But transportation and
cold storage for 
flowers and CITES and Phytosanitary certification for
export are the
road-blocks, as they always have been.

Few things change in India as you well know.












At 2:34 AM +0100 4/10/08, uttam borthakur wrote:
The magic of the green fingers. It is simply
glorious.
   
   Chandan Da, is there any easy procedure for taking
seeds, saplings 
etc. from here to US on demand from friends/
relatives or it has to 
be a covert work?

Chan Mahanta cmahanta at charter.net wrote:
   Sorry I sent the message without the picture. Here
it is:




Here are two glorious orchids from Assam in bloom in
our living room.

The yellow one on the left is Dendrobium fibriatum
and the white one
with the yellow center is Dendrobium farmeri. Both
are widely found
in the Khasi Hills and cooler areas of Assam as in
Upper Assam.

cm___
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Uttam Kumar Borthakur

   
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and more on  Best 
of Yahoo! Groups.
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[Assam] Two Orchids from Assam

2008-04-10 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

Missed to add --- India have been a  Party to CITES
since 1976.   However,  even local flower market (near
Sukreswar temple, Guwahati) is flooded with flowers
from Kolkata  .. and I would not think you need
CITES or Phytosanitary  certification   to sell
flowers in Guwahati


--- Krishnendu Chakraborty [EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:

 WB, Karnataka and TN are the major exporters of
 flower
 from India.  The flowers are exported to European
 countries (including UK), Middle East, SA, Far East
 etc.   The business get a lot of support from State
 Government including  cold storage.The State
 Government in these states prefer not to wait for
 GOI
 to do everything for them.
 
 
 Phytosanitary  certification  from India are
 recognized in US and that's how Indian Mangoes are
 now
 being imported in US. However,  the last I knew was
 there is just one lab in India.
 
 I must say that the orchids are beautifull but the
 beauty has been magnified manifold by the eye behind
 the lens.
 
 It is a very complicated issue Uttam.
 
 Orchids are very special plants. Their cultural
 requirements are very 
 demanding. You can keep them alive and even make
 them grow well out 
 of their natural habitats, but you may not be able
 to make them 
 bloom. Kopou-ful ( Rhynchostylis retusa)  is almost
 impossible to 
 bring to bloom, even in a simple green house like
 ours. It needs 
 precise temperature , humidity and brightness of
 light conditions 
 that can be replicated only in a very sophisticated
 greenhouse.
 
 International laws prohibit collecting, owning,
 selling or exporting 
 of orchids from their natural habitats. Only
 commercially grown 
 orchids can be exported or imported. And to import
 to
 the USA the 
 exporter must be able to furnish proof that:
 
 A: It is commercially grown and can be certified in
 accordance with 
 CITES regulations.
 
 B: That the plants are not contaminated with
 organisms
 such as fungi, 
 bacteria or viruses. This is done by  producing 
 what
 is called 
 phytosanitary certification from an accredited
 laboratory.
 
 Among the many orchid producing countries of the
 world
 India and 
 Bangladesh are the only ones that I know of that do
 not have lab. 
 facilities that would be recognized by the USA. So
 no
 orchid export 
 takes place, legally, from India to the USA.
 
 
 Incidentally, almost all but the rarest of rare or
 endangered orchids 
 that grow in south Asia can be purchased from many
 orchid growers 
 across the USA, Europe, Thailand, Malaysia,
 Singapore,
 Taiwan etc. 
 They are not even as expensive as some of the
 hybrids.
 The reasons 
 are several:
 
 A: Orchids from Assam and the surrounding region are
 what is called 
 species orchids--not hybrids. They are pure. But
 they are not easy 
 to care for, have stringent cultural needs.
 
 B: As showy as our orchids are, the flowers are
 short
 lived, compared 
 to many orchids from other regions.
 
 The two orchids whose pictures I posted here will
 last, at most,  two 
 weeks. That is nothing compared to some or hybrid
 Dendrobiums  or 
 Phalaenopses or Cymbidiums or Oncidiums that
 routinely
 last two to 
 three months. BTW some varieties of the latter two
 grow in the wilds 
 of Arunachal as well as the Khasi Hills. The only
 cymbidiums we see 
 in the Brahmaputra valley are those that grow on the
 trunks and 
 branches of huge trees  that produce little and
 not-so-attractive 
 flowers on long pendulous growths. These are called
 Cymbidium 
 pendulata. Even though these are not showy, they are
 sought after by 
 breeders for cross breeding to produce more
 attractive
 hybrids. But 
 they are extremely difficult to bring to bloom in
 temperate climates. 
 I have had a large plant for years, but no flowers!
 
 Commercial orchid growing, both as cut flowers as
 well
 as plants have 
 a great potential in Assam,. But transportation and
 cold storage for 
 flowers and CITES and Phytosanitary certification
 for
 export are the
 road-blocks, as they always have been.
 
 Few things change in India as you well know.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 At 2:34 AM +0100 4/10/08, uttam borthakur wrote:
 The magic of the green fingers. It is simply
 glorious.

Chandan Da, is there any easy procedure for
 taking
 seeds, saplings 
 etc. from here to US on demand from friends/
 relatives or it has to 
 be a covert work?
 
 Chan Mahanta cmahanta at charter.net wrote:
Sorry I sent the message without the picture.
 Here
 it is:
 
 
 
 
 Here are two glorious orchids from Assam in bloom
 in
 our living room.
 
 The yellow one on the left is Dendrobium fibriatum
 and the white one
 with the yellow center is Dendrobium farmeri. Both
 are widely found
 in the Khasi Hills and cooler areas of Assam as in
 Upper Assam.
 
 cm___
 assam mailing list
 assam at assamnet.org

http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
 
 
 
 Uttam Kumar Borthakur

[Assam] From ToI? India's Stand on Tibet/Tibet strategic water resources

2008-04-08 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

It may be noted that the comments are coming from
citizen of a Superpower which turned a blind eye
during Tienman square or Tibet because China continues
to be its manufacturing hub .



*** Shows what India values more: Real estate or
Human Rights!

cm






India takes rigid anti-Tibet stand

  BEIJING, APR 3 (PTI)

According to China, New Delhi has assured that it will
not tolerate 
any political anti-Beijing activities by Tibetans on
the Indian 
territory.

For the second time in less than a week, China has
briefed India on 
the Tibet issue.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi spoke over phone
to his Indian 
counterpart Pranab Mukherjee and exchanged views on
bilateral 
relations, explaining Beijing's 'principled stand' on
the Dalai Lama 
issue, the state media said on Thursday.

''Mukherjee said the Tibet Autonomous Region is part
of China's 
territory and India will never tolerate any political
anti-China 
activities by Tibetans on the Indian Territory,''
official Xinhua 
news agency reported.

In the conversation on Wednesday, Yang also told
Mukherjee that it 
had been proved ''and will continue to be proven''
that any scheme by 
the ''Dalai Clique'', referring to the supporters of
the Tibetan 
spiritual leader, to split and break China was
''doomed to failure.''

The conversation comes after China's State Councilor
Dai Bingguo's 
telephonic talk with National Security Adviser M K
Naranayan on March 
30 when he briefed him on the ''violent crimes'' in
Lhasa and 
''expounded'' China's stance on and concerns over the
Tibet issue.



  

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[Assam] From TOI --Indian Special Court's Speed

2008-03-26 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

While the entire episode need to be criticized,  the
special court disposed the case in a little over an
hour without any adjournement etc.  Are we expecting
anything faster then that from the special courts (or
for that matter, from ANY court in the world) !!



*** If I am not mistaken these 'special'  courts were
designed to 
provide fast justice, weren't they?

cm



14 yrs in courts, 1 hour to walk free
27 Mar 2008, 0155 hrs IST,Rukmini Shrinivasan,TNN
   Print SaveEMail   Write to Editor

MUMBAI: The much hyped but much delayed special
courts, which the 
Maharashtra government set up last year to try 1992-93
riots cases, 
disposed of the first case on Tuesday: a man accused
of stealing two 
cans of groundnut oil 14 years ago was acquitted.

Metropolitan magistrate R C Bapat Sarkar took a little
over an hour 
to acquit Abdul Ghaffar, whose case was one of the
priority cases 
specially selected by the government to be tried in
the new courts.

Ghaffar (45), a sherbet seller on Mohammed Ali Road,
was arrested in 
May 1993 for breaking into and stealing two cans
of oil from a 
godown near his house in December 1992.

Dozens of us were rounded up during those days and
charged with 
offences ranging from theft to murder depending on our
'look', 
Ghaffar said during a break from work at his house
near Suleman Usman 
Bakery. I was in custody for two and a half months.
They beat me up 
and tortured me in ways that I cannot tell you, he
added.

Ghaffar was charged under Sections 380 (robbery) and
454 (trespass) 
of IPC. His trial began at the Mazgaon magistrate's
court. My date 
would come up every two weeks. I'd go to court, sign
my name, and 
then be told that the case was adjourned. I'd return
home by evening, 
a day's earnings lost, said Ghaffar.

For the past two years, there was no hearing and
Ghaffar was told by 
police that his case had been put in the dormant file.





  

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Re: [Assam] Question

2008-03-18 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

If you are sending only Docs,  you do not need Custom
Documentation with courier (at least for UPS, which I
used).

For USPS,  all docs and non-docs require Custom Doc.

USPS uses a standard customs declaration form

If you agree to a 7 day delivery window,  USPS is
around 50% cheaper then commercial couriers


Thanks.

I will go to the PO instead of Fedex etc. They are
very expensive. 
Besides, I have spent nearly an hour now trying to
prepare the 
customs declaration documentation --and still no
success.  India!!!


USPost EMS does wonderfully - max 5 days.
DHL ,FEDEX,UPS,TNT All  Have links.
mm Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2008 10:34:37 -0500 To: assam
at assamnet.org 
From: cmahanta at charter.net Subject: [Assam]
Question  What is a 
good courier service to employ to send a package of
papers  to 
Guwahati from USA? Is DHL better than Fedex for
example? Does  
Fedex go there? 
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Re: [Assam] Question

2008-03-18 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

That's good information .  Looks like USPS has a
different rule in their website then what they
actually follow (website says custom form required for
All cases for International Express Mail)!!  


--- Chan Mahanta [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 
 Just came back from the post office, where I went
 after an hour or so 
 of struggles to complete the customs declaration
 form via Fedex for 
 12 ozs. of documents, but failed and which was going
 to cost me $ 76 .
 
 But US Overseas Express mail ( delivery in seven
 business days) did 
 NOT require any customs declaration for documents
 and cost just $ 27. 
 I even had the customs declaration form filled out
 before I 
 approached the postal clerk's window. He just tore
 that apart, as he 
 did the Certified Mail receipt.
 
 That WAS a positively good experience at a govt.
 office :-).
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 At 11:26 AM -0700 3/18/08, Krishnendu Chakraborty
 wrote:
 If you are sending only Docs,  you do not need
 Custom
 Documentation with courier (at least for UPS, which
 I
 used).
 
 For USPS,  all docs and non-docs require Custom
 Doc.
 
 USPS uses a standard customs declaration form
 
 If you agree to a 7 day delivery window,  USPS is
 around 50% cheaper then commercial couriers
 
 
 Thanks.
 
 I will go to the PO instead of Fedex etc. They
 are
 very expensive.
 Besides, I have spent nearly an hour now trying
 to
 prepare the
 customs declaration documentation --and still no
 success.  India!!!
 
 
 USPost EMS does wonderfully - max 5 days.
 DHL ,FEDEX,UPS,TNT All  Have links.
 mm Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2008 10:34:37 -0500 To:
 assam
 at assamnet.org
 From: cmahanta at charter.net Subject: [Assam]
 Question  What is a
 good courier service to employ to send a package
 of
 papers  to
 Guwahati from USA? Is DHL better than Fedex for
 example? Does 
 Fedex go there? 
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[Assam] VKIC and XATRA

2008-03-17 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

Vivekananda Kendra is a Sangha Parivar organization
founded by Ekanath Ranade.  Here is the website for
more info.   http://www.vkendra.org/


What is VKIC? Why do they come into the picture for
Xatras in Assam?
  It appears the Xatras are not cooperating but VKIC
is insisting? What is behind the news?
  Can someone from Assam tell us more about it?
  Dilip Deka
   
  FROM THE ASSAM TRIBUNE
  VKICs appeal to Sattradhikars
By A City Correspondent
 GUWAHATI, March 16  The Vivekananda Kendra Institute
of Culture (VKIC) has appealed to the Sattradhikars of
the State to support its efforts in collecting
information about the various aspects of the Satras.
To collect information, the VKIC had sent forms to all
the Satras requesting the Sattradhikars to submit the
forms by March 15. The VKIC has however withdrawn the
deadline for submitting the forms requesting the
Sattradhikars to co-operate with its efforts. The VKIC
has also called upon those Sattradhikars who have not
received the forms, to contact the VKIC .





  

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[Assam] False information presented in Parliament about Amerikaaan Desis !

2008-03-12 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

You think India is at Cross roads economically.At 
CrossRoads you can go to golden sunrise or to deep
abyss 

PWC thinks it is going to golden sunrise  
http://www.pwc.com/extweb/pwcpublications.nsf/docid/56DD37D0C399661D852571410060FF8B/$file/world2050emergingeconomies.pdf
 
 and 
http://www.pwc.com/extweb/pwcpublications.nsf/docid/146E4E4D52487154852573FA0058A179/$file/world_2050_brics.pdf


  

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[Assam] Spinning

2008-03-11 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

I sure missed someone waving voter statistics as PROOF
of people's loyalty to the dynasty ...

however,  if someone try to equate (spin) being loyal
to India as being loyal to the dynasty (looks like a
firm believer of the slogan -- Indira is India),  the
faulty logic implies that people of WB, Maharashtra,
Gujarat and a number of other states are not loyal to
India.  




Are we suggesting it is not out of love and devotion
to the departed 
ruler/s of a beloved dynasty as proven by repeated
free and fair 
elections where 80% to 90% people participate?

And if not so, how come our friends here and over
there keep waving 
those voter statistics as a PROOF of the people's
loyalty to their 
rulers?

Who is spinning?




  

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[Assam] Nona Walia's article

2008-03-07 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

It is basically Delhi and Kolkata to spoil the image
of Assam

Mr Bhaumik who first protested is from Kolkata and Mr
Chakrabarti who joined him is from Noida.

Time for Delhi Assamese or NE people to stand as
they do live in the capital.WAsh up of bad image need
be made from Delhi itself.It is basically Delhi and
Kolkata to spoil the image of Assam and NE.I wish Nona
Walia visit Assam properly and make a good
documentary and know the best region of the country in
life.Else write us as man eaters of the North East?

Dr.Bikash Kumar Das
Bangalore

Uddipana Goswami uddipana at gmail.com wrote:
I am intrigued by the fact that the nurse from the
Northeast was singled
out. If the kidney racket case had to be brought up
here, I would have
thought a reference to (non) professional doctors
should have logically led
to a mention of the doctors (none of them
Northeasterners) implicated in
the case, and not a nurse. Besides - or because of -
having a skewed idea of
the Northeast, the correspondent seems to have
overlooked this not-so-minor
distinction between the professions.

In another case, a recent news item in
expressindia.com (
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Assam-businessman-murdered-in-S-Delhi-cops-on-motivehunt/270906/)
on the murder of Pranab Saikia, an Assamese
businessman in Delhi,
misreported the name of the murdered man as Pranav
Sekiya. What is more
appaling than the journalistic standard of the
reporter who did not even
bother to verify the names of the people he was
reporting about, is the
rampant ignorance in national or mainstream media
regarding the people
and places of the Northeast. And this ignorance is
commensurate only with
the indifference.

Slogans of national integration should not be
shouted when such attitudes
are at play.

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[Assam] Nona Walia's article

2008-03-07 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

Sir,  looks like you are competing with Noni Walia in
the who is more racial game ?


Let's see who wins?


Bandor kekowa nalagowakoi aponar gat khajuwati
lagil dekhon?? Nijei khajuwai labo baru.
   
  Bikash
  

Krishnendu Chakraborty krish_gau at yahoo.com wrote:
  It is basically Delhi and Kolkata to spoil the
image
of Assam

Mr Bhaumik who first protested is from Kolkata and Mr
Chakrabarti who joined him is from Noida. 



  

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[Assam] Bhut Jolokia

2008-03-03 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

Dear Dr Das,

Sorry I do not have any link.  I got a paper copy from
my co-worker.
I understand that you need to subscribe to Wall Street
Journal to access the online edition.

Does anyone in assamnet have a subscription to WSJO?



Dangoriya,
  Could you mail me that link please? I would be
happy.So nice information you gave.By the way is
one lady who is from Nagaon- some Bharalee, broke
world record of eating this jalakiya.We call Agni
jalakiya in Darrang. I remember saw this news 2
years ago in Bangalore papers.
  Regards.
  Bikash




  

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[Assam] Bhut Jolokia

2008-02-29 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

There was  an article on Bhut Jolokia in Wall Street
Journal (Feb 2 -3 ) .  Nice to see our ethnic product
getting international recognition. 

A co-worker of mine found it and saved it for me
(since I was on vacation).

The other interesting part is -- the map of India in
the inset shows J  K as integral part of India -- the
way it is shown in maps published in India 

Unless GOI/GOA take steps to patent Bhut Jolokia,  a
new patent war will soon start




  

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[Assam] Harrasment thy name is Continental

2008-02-26 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

We just returned from our trip to India.

This time,  we preferred to book in Continental
Airlines since it provides a non stop  flight from
Newark to Mumbai and we thought we would save some
time.

Little did we know that it is worse then Indian
Railways !

Our flight plan was Boston to Newark at 4:30 PM and
Newark to Mumbai at 8:40 PM.On reaching airport,
we were informed that since flights are running
slightly (!!) behind the schedule due to weather
conditions, we have been put to 3:30 flight just to
ensure that we do not miss our connection.

The 3:30 flight got rescheduled to 5:30 and again to
6:40.

When I inquired about status of Newark -- Mumbai
flight, I was informed it was on time  and CO Agent
advised us to take an earlier flight to Newark
(Originally scheduled at 2 PM, rescheduled to 4:55
PM).  

The flight was taxing for about an hour and took off
at 6 PM.  At around 7 PM,  we were informed that there
is bad weather  and the flight did not have enough
fuel to wait. No ALS, CAT-3  helped.  So they took us
back to Boston.  We were imprisoned in the flight for
about 45 minutes and then allowed to deplane.

The staff in Boston airport is the rudest I have ever
seen.   They mentioned that the options available to
us are to cancel our trip or travel to Newark in next
flight and wait in airport for next available
international flight. They categorically mentioned
that CO will not provide any accomodation.

Well, we took the risk to travel to Newark and reached
at 11:30 PM.  CO did not provide food or even water
during this trip. We were out of food from 5 PM
onwards !!

 All international flights have left.  After some
cajoling,  we were provided hotel accomodation
vouchers in ... guess what  HOJO  !!   However, 
CO was again negligent but this time, it was good for
us. On reaching HOJO, we were informed that they
are fully booked and pushed us to another hotel
(Wyndham) ... a decent one.

Next day, they put us in a flight to Paris and then a
connecting AF flight to Mumbai.  Eventually we reached
Mumbai 27 hours after the scheduled arrival time  (did
I say it is worse then Indian Railways) .

Irony is, Mumbai - Newark flight which we missed
earlier day was delayed by over 2 hours  and had we
travelled by our original flight (3:30 PM rescheduled
to 6:40 PM) we could have made it.  In fact,  our
luggage travelled to Mumbai one day before us

Apparently, the CO staff at Boston had no information
that the Newark- Mumbai flight has been delayed.

Also,   the CO flight was the Only flight which could
not land on Newark on that day.

Well the story does not end here.

During the return trip,  in Mumbai airport,  I was
told that our booking has been cancelled  reason
.. we did not travel per our original booking during
onward journey. 

It took me over 30 minutes to explain them that my
travel plan was changed because of CO's fault.   
Finally,  they made some arrangement even though we
did not get our preferred seating.

The non-stop flight (16 hours) is not bad except that
the quantity of food is not sufficient.

Have sent a complaint to Continental and waiting for
their response.

I have seen people bashing Air India in various
forums, but compared to Continental, Air India ground
staff are angel. 

Up until now, I have mostly travelled AI and
occassionaly BA.  This was my first attempt with CO
and I think I will stick to AI or Jet (or Kingfisher
if they start US operation) 

Will share my Mumbai / Guwahati experience in another
posting.







  

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[Assam] Harrasment thy name is Continental

2008-02-26 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

Ram-da

I found the 16 hour journey somewhat more comfortable
then the break in Europe.With the stop in Europe, 
every time you are almost asleep, you either have a
meal/snacks break or the airport is approaching. With
16 hour travel,  you have around 7 - 8 hours without
any disturbance.

My final destination is always Mumbai (I take a 2 - 3
days break in Mumbai) and so the ungodly hours are not
an issue.

I forgot to add one more point .

We were eventually routed through Paris.  The
Newark-Paris flight landed in Terminal A of C D Gaule
airport.  The terminal is worse then Mumbai airport
... no elevator/escalator. Looks like they are having
some construction.  Not even an information board.  A
lady with a paper informed us (there were around 10
people in all) that our connecting flight (AF) will
depart from terminal B.  
Went to terminal B and we were informed we need to go
to terminal E.

The terminal E was decent like any other international
airport.  However, while in Restroom,  I found the
wash basins very inconvenient.  The wash basins are
almost flat with a little curve and there is no option
of hot water.  The water splashes on you.   
Not sure if there is any reason behind such design.

BTW,  Kingfisher now has a direct (non-stop)  flight
from Mumbai to Guwahati and the service is ... well as
expected from Kingfisher. They took care of our
luggage as soon as we reached airport   and took it
through X-Ray till Checkin.  I need not even push the
luggage cart not to speak of loading and unloading it.

They will probably start US operation sometimes this
year.

KC,

From my experience, American (O'Hare - Del) is
somewhere nearabouts your CO
flight.

The first thing people ought to understand is that
if your destination is
say Guwahati (and not Del or Mumbai), you really
reach at the same unearthly
hour, that an overnight at Del/Cal/Mumbai and that
doesn't make it
worthwhile.

On the return from Del, American kept delaying our
flight to Chicago every 2
hours and of course because of 'technical difficulty',
and in the end I
think the flight left 6 hours or later.

This time, we took Lufthansa - OK service, very
clinical, but they are on
time.

Amlan is correct - any of the Asian airlines are far
superior. I wonder how
Jet Airways - Del-NY is?

Also for people in Houston, we have a flight now from
Houston to Dubai
non-stop by Emirates, and with convenient connections
to a number of
locations in India. Its great if you want to get some
shopping at Dubai and
then on to the Desh! :).

Non stops for 14 -15 hours are not fun.

--Ram da


On 2/26/08, Krishnendu Chakraborty krish_gau at
yahoo.com wrote:

 We just returned from our trip to India.

 This time,  we preferred to book in Continental
 Airlines since it provides a non stop  flight from
 Newark to Mumbai and we thought we would save some
 time.

 Little did we know that it is worse then Indian
 Railways !

 Our flight plan was Boston to Newark at 4:30 PM and
 Newark to Mumbai at 8:40 PM.On reaching airport,
 we were informed that since flights are running
 slightly (!!) behind the schedule due to weather
 conditions, we have been put to 3:30 flight just to
 ensure that we do not miss our connection.

 The 3:30 flight got rescheduled to 5:30 and again to
 6:40.

 When I inquired about status of Newark -- Mumbai
 flight, I was informed it was on time  and CO Agent
 advised us to take an earlier flight to Newark
 (Originally scheduled at 2 PM, rescheduled to 4:55
 PM).

 The flight was taxing for about an hour and took off
 at 6 PM.  At around 7 PM,  we were informed that
there
 is bad weather  and the flight did not have enough
 fuel to wait. No ALS, CAT-3  helped.  So they took
us
 back to Boston.  We were imprisoned in the flight
for
 about 45 minutes and then allowed to deplane.

 The staff in Boston airport is the rudest I have
ever
 seen.   They mentioned that the options available to
 us are to cancel our trip or travel to Newark in
next
 flight and wait in airport for next available
 international flight. They categorically mentioned
 that CO will not provide any accomodation.

 Well, we took the risk to travel to Newark and
reached
 at 11:30 PM.  CO did not provide food or even water
 during this trip. We were out of food from 5 PM
 onwards !!

 All international flights have left.  After some
 cajoling,  we were provided hotel accomodation
 vouchers in ... guess what  HOJO  !!   However,
 CO was again negligent but this time, it was good
for
 us. On reaching HOJO, we were informed that they
 are fully booked and pushed us to another hotel
 (Wyndham) ... a decent one.

 Next day, they put us in a flight to Paris and then
a
 connecting AF flight to Mumbai.  Eventually we
reached
 Mumbai 27 hours after the scheduled arrival time 
(did
 I say it is worse then Indian Railways) .

 Irony is, Mumbai - Newark flight which we missed
 earlier day was delayed by over 2 hours  and had we
 travelled by our original flight (3:30 PM

[Assam] Local Elections

2008-01-30 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

Or may be  voters could not trust a party that
fragmented, joined and fragmented again .. all in less
then 10 -15 years;   whose leaders have number of
scnadals behind them;  whose leaders are busy blaming
each other then anything else  the list continues

Disclaimer:  I am no fan of Congress either

Perverse philosophy of Voters who think:
The Dispur's Congressy moneybags  will pump more
cash into  my area-
--and we can make hay when the sun shines.
All wrong of course.
And the Cong is very unhappy that others cannot 
now  be blamed for peoples' woes.
Voters may askYou here-you  at Dispur-you  at 
Dilli--and yet we in the quagmire??
And the Founding Fathers   did not write about
Panchayat Elections thus:Elect your own elite-for
mobilizing your lives  .
National Parties shall NOT lend their names to any
candidate
Anyway GP /AP will be another Farce in Assam.
mm



 Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 09:24:57 -0800 From:
dilipdeka at yahoo.com To: assam at assamnet.org
Subject: [Assam] Local Elections  Why is it that the
local parties couldn't do well even in local
elections? Zila Parishad elections would be like
County elections in USA, I'd think. The ZP elections
should have been more oriented towards local issues,
thus making them more favorable to the local parties.
Where is the gap? Dilip Deka

From the Sentinel: Congress steals the show
Panchayat poll results  By our Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Jan 29: Down from the 18 zila parishads that
the ruling Congress had won in the last panchayat
polls, the party nevertheless won 14 of the 18 zila
parishads that went to polls in the State this time.
The ruling party also won most of the seats for
anchalik parishad members, gaon panchayat presidents
and gaon panchayat members, though the AGP and the BJP
fought strongly in some of the districts. Based on
the number of Congress party candidates winning in
their respective constituencies, the best performance
has been seen in the constituencies of Chief Minister
Tarun Gogoi, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma,
Education Minister Ripun Bora and Forest Minister
Rockybul Hussain. The worst performance has been in
the constituencies of Parliamentary Affairs Minister
Bharat Narah and Power Minister Pradyut Bordoloi. For
the AGP, the best performance has been witnessed in
the constituencies of Phani Bhushan Choudhury, Padma
Hazarika, Pradip Hazarika and Sarbananda Sonowal,
while the worst performance has been in the
constituencies of party president Brindabon Goswami,
Hiten Goswami and Atul Bora. AGP-P president Prafulla
Kumar Mahanta and Hiranya Konwar are also the worst
performers in terms of performance by party candidates
in their constituencies. As for the CPI, Dhrupad
Borgohains constituency has seen the worst
performance.  Meanwhile, with the victory of the
Congress, a number of anti-Gogoi Congress leaders from
Delhi to Dispur, who were ready challenge the Chief
Minister in the event of poor performance of the party
in the panchayat polls, have had to bite the dust. The
Congress leaders who were vocal for Congress-AUDF
merger have been silenced by the poor performance of
the Badruddin Ajmal-led AUDF.  Kamrup (Metro) goes
to Congress By our Staff Reporter GUWAHATI, Jan 29:
The ruling Congress came out winner in Kamrup (Metro)
in panchayat polls, the results of which were declared
today.  Of the five zila parishad (ZP) seats in the
district, the Congress won as many as four, while one
seat went to the AGP.  Of the 21 gaon panchayat (GP)
president seats in the district, the Congress won 14,
followed by the BJP four and the AGP three. The
Congress also maintained its winning spree in anchalik
parishad (AP) member seats in the district by winning
12 of the 21 seats. Of the remaining nine seats, the
BJP won five, AGP two, and AGP-P and the TGP one each.
 Of the 207 GP member seats in the district, the
Congress won 116 seats, followed by the BJP 41, AGP
31, TGP 10 and others 11. It may be mentioned here
that though the Congress won the panchayat polls in a
massive way in Kamrup (Metro), yet the BJP seemed to
have made a good inroad into the district despite the
absence of any MLA there. Talking to The Sentinel
today, BJPs City District Committee president Jayanta
Kumar Das said: The results of the BJP were beyond
expectations. We came second in Kamrup (Metro) despite
the absence any MLA in the district. In most of the ZP
seats, we were a close second, and this will have its
impact in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls in the
State. In Jalukbari LAC in Kamrup district, it is a
clean sweep by the Congress. Barring three GP member
seats, all the seats were won by the Congress.  
Cong sweeps in Tinsukia and Sadiya; Margherita goes to
BJP From our Reporter  TINSUKIA, Jan 29: Barring
Margherita subdivision where the BJP dominated the
scene, the Congress came out winner in Tinsukia and
Sadiya subdivisions in Tinsukia district where the
results of the

[Assam] symbol of cruelty

2008-01-21 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

And I repeat: Subtlety, thy name is not desi!

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/12/27/world/asia/20071227_BHUTTO_FEATURE.html#section1

Have we NOT been aware of these kind of activities
going on for
decades? Didn't we know that rhinos are shot down with
shotgun
pellets and left to die in horrible agony. Didn't
we know that they
are trapped in pits with bamboo spikes lining the pits
to impale
these animals and let them die in horrible pain?

Did we need this picture to finally awaken us to
animal cruelty.

Or did we need the body of the FCI official Ram
lying in a pool of
blood across the newspapers to tell us about the
tragedy ?

Or images of freshly killed 'suspected insurgents',
strung up on
bamboo poles taken away by the police in UNIFORM?

If it did, then something is terribly wrong with our
own
sensitivities, isn't it?

The truth is that our sensitivities have long been
buried, if they
were there at all.

A civilization is not marked by its ability to
disperse shock value.
It is marked by its ability to get the message
across and stay with
it, without the blood and gore, without trampling on
the
sensitivities of the victims' kin or their admirers.

And I repeat: Subtlety, thy name is not desi!

At 9:37 PM +0530 1/21/08, Manoj Das wrote:
but for these journalists we would never have seen
such a horrific
picture and symbol of mens' greed. journalists should
show what we
are. i dare to differ.

-manoj

On 1/21/08, Dilip/Dil Deka dilipdeka at yahoo.com
wrote:
You are absolutely correct. Sensitivity is lacking
when the newspapers
publish not only the picture of a suffering animal
but also pictures of dead
people lying on the street killed by the police or
the militants. Several
months ago, I was shocked by photographs of the
FCI official's dead body
lying in a pool of blood, and had a nightmare.
Is it shock therapy and does it work?
Dilip

Chan Mahanta cmahanta at charter.net wrote:
But in this
case, maybe, just maybe, it will wake up the
Govt, and others who seem
hell-bent to capture the limelight at the first
opportunity.

*** Limelight is absolutely a misnomer. It
demonstrates an utter lack
of sensitivity to blood and gore, a cultural void,
which is not
unexpected from the most violent society on earth:
India.

I am glad it was a front page story. However it
could have been dealt
with a bit of maturity that could be expected from
civilized society.

Perhaps my expectation is misplaced.

At 8:02 AM -0600 1/21/08, Ram Sarangapani wrote:
C'da,

In India this journalistic discretion is
absolutely different.
Maybe Indian news media is going thru a phase,
and such standards be
damned.

Some examples:
The Beltola incident - many newspapers TV were
not ashamed to show a
naked
woman running around.

In the tiger attack in the Guwahati Zoo, last
month, it seems a number of
TV
channels showed live footage. There was only one
newspaper (The Hindu)
which
said 'after a discussion with the editors', it
was decided to publish only
a
black white photo, not color'.

And now this gory sickening photo of the
unfortunate rhino. But in this
case, maybe, just maybe, it will wake up the
Govt, and others who seem
hell-bent to capture the limelight at the first
opportunity.

--Ram

On 1/21/08, Chan Mahanta wrote:

I have never seen a newspaper with a modicum of
journalistic
discretion publish something like this horrific
picture on their
front page.

Oh my Country!!!

*** Indeed!

At 6:02 PM +0530 1/21/08, mc mahant wrote:
Manoj,
When I opened the Tribune in the morning- I
thought-the beast/s who
did that needed to be castrated. Later on
--more rational thoughts
came. To teach every citizen/human how
vivisection needs to be
practised onto ones near and dear ones first.
And more thoughts
I never opened the paper again .
Oh my Country!!!
Oh for the Indian Rupee!
M'da Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 14:58:22 +0530
From:
dasmk2k at gmail.com To: assam at
assamnet.org Subject: [Assam] symbol
of cruelty
http://www.assamtribune.com/jan2108/Photo.html
heart cries out to this wounded rhino at
kaziranga national park.
-manoj
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[Assam] Nano -- Global Warming

2008-01-18 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

Concern on Global Warming from a country which
remains one of the handful country not to ratify the
Kyoto protocol and which releases more greenhouse
gases than any other nation

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-nano18jan18,1,6189414.story?coll=la-news-comment

Tiny Tata Nano, big threat
template_bas
template_bas
The $2,500 Nano will put millions more Indians on the
road. Is there a silver lining in that pollution
cloud?
January 18, 2008

There's a good reason why chief U.N. climate scientist
Rajendra Pachauri, who shared last year's Nobel Peace
Prize with Al Gore, says he's having nightmares
about India's newest automotive innovation. It's not
because the Nano from Tata Motors, which was
introduced last week, makes the boxiest hatchbacks
from the '70s look sexy. It's not because the car
lacks air conditioning in a country where the heat can
be paralyzing, nor because its 2-cylinder engine can
barely manage 60 mph. It's because the vehicle's tiny
price tag -- about $2,500 -- will make car ownership
possible for millions of Indians, which could well
render the rest of the world's efforts to combat
global warming moot.

Currently, only about 12 in 1,000 Indians have a car,
according to the United Nations. In the United States,
the ratio is 765 cars for every 1,000 people. What
happens if, through a combination of its incredibly
rapid economic growth and innovations like the Nano,
India's car-ownership ratio hits that of the U.S.?
That would put 864 million cars on India's roads, more
than 3 1/2 times the number in the U.S. It wouldn't
happen for several decades, if ever, but the same
phenomenon is occurring in China, which has an even
bigger population. The International Energy Agency
estimates that the number of cars in China will
increase sevenfold, to 270 million, by 2030.That's a
scary prospect. Light-duty vehicles account for about
10% of global carbon emissions, and that number is
going to rise quickly as more Indians and Chinese get
behind the wheel.

Indians, of course, have every right to enjoy the
newfound freedom and status that comes with owning a
car. There is nothing the world's environmental
community can or should do to interfere with the
rollout of the Nano. Yet it does point up the urgency
of developing technological alternatives to the
internal combustion engine and the burning of fossil
fuels.

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[Assam] Tata's Nano - any innovation or waste of consumer's money

2008-01-18 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

Alpana-ba, you are right   The rich and powerful
are the ones that need to change.  

For example,  many in India are criticizing Nano but
there is no word against families owning more then one
car ... that too gas guzzling ones  !!

But I do not think anything can be done on increasing
the road in India ... there is simply no space (a very
rare occassion   I am in agreement with C'da )   .




Well! am I trying to depress you on a Friday
evening? No, no! Don't worry about a thing. 
 
Go out and have fun and a great long weekend!! 


:(  No long weekend for us :( We have 11 paid holidays
in a year and MLK is not one of those.



I am not against aNYone having a car, Krishnendu. I
would do exactly the same for my parents. Their safety
and comfort is number one in my book too.
 
It is just that the condition of the roads (and
everything else) makes me sad and sometimes mad. The
rich have no consideration for the poor and the
ordinary people, or for the street outside their
homes, or the environment. 
 
Then, isn't it like that everywhere and what am I
complaining about? Well, it is worse when it is
man-made and which could be changed if the rich and
the powerful ones do pay some attention to the basic
things that need to be changed. We need not be
satisfied with what is there, but look for the better
and for others (excuse me for being a self-appointed
lecturer here).
 
Well! am I trying to depress you on a Friday
evening? No, no! Don't worry about a thing. 
 
Go out and have fun and a great long weekend!! 
 
Regards,
- Alpana Baideu
 
 
 
 

 

In order to make spiritual progress you must be
patient like a tree and humble like a blade of grass
- Lakshmana
 
 
 

 Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2008 09:28:32 -0800 From:
krish_gau at yahoo.com To: assam at assamnet.org
Subject: [Assam] Tata's Nano - any innovation or waste
of consumer's money  My point was, with good
transportation system like they have in India, and
for the alleys being so narrow in most neighborhoods,
everyone does NOT necessarily have to have a car.  
 Alpana-ba, you are right coming to point ... with
good transportation system or let me re-phrase it
with good public transport system.  Cars are not a
necessity in cities like Mumbai where you have well
maintained bus (BEST) running till middle of night
which does not wait in stops endlessly trying to fill
up every inch of space, OR where you get a Auto in
middle of night even in small bye-lanes which is
ready to take you to your destination at a metered
rate. Cars are not required in many areas of Kolkata
which are covered by Subway or cheap shared autos
which often feeds the subway.  In these places,
unless you are a road warrior, you can live
comfortably without a car.  But I would think it is
a necessity in places like Guwahati. To use public
transport, my parents will have to walk a mile to get
to the bus stop because it keeps moving further
regularly (thanks to constructions and traffic
managers who have no clue),  get into an rickety
overcrowded bus and wait till the conductor is
satisfied that the bus is full till brim, walk
another mile after getting down  imagine this in
the summer months of June/July or on rainy days . OR,
the alternative is to hire an Auto which will ask for
an astronomical amount, meters are just a showpiece.
After 9 PM, situation is worse ... no bus and double
fare for Autos. Add to this, the frequent Chakka
Bandhs, Bus drivers strike, Bus owners strike and
what not.  Would it be unfair if they use a car ? I
guess no.  Think about your trips to Guwahati and
you will understand what I mean.That was
not in my mind - to compare the streets of India and
the US. Because I know if I did I would not win. 
Now, just for argument's sake, even if one does
compare, parking on a real road is one thing, and
having to park on top of garbage that comes off the
drain the day before is another. I won't even have to
mention about the space to turn around, etc.  My
point was, with good transportation system like they
have in India, and for the alleys being so narrow in
most neighborhoods, everyone does NOT necessarily
have to have a car.Cras are good for going to
parties in all finery and when it is raining. 
Right. And if it does not flood the roads.
 In order to make spiritual progress you
must be patient like a tree and humble like a blade
of grass - Lakshmana  Date: Wed, 16 Jan
2008 20:07:45 -0800 From: jaipurschool at yahoo.com
To: assam at assamnet.org Subject: Re: [Assam]
Tata's Nano - any innovation or waste pf consumer's
money  even in US people have to park on the street
- infront of most town houses - like the one I used
to stay at. You just need to take a permit Same is
all over Washington DC for is residents. They park on
the street.  Cras are good for going to parties in
all finery and when it is raining.  Umesh 
Alpana B. Sarangapani absarangapani at
hotmail.com wrote: This is good...  ...it would be
even better if road conditions were

[Assam] Tata's Nano - any innovation or waste of consumer's money

2008-01-17 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

My point was, with good  transportation system like
they have in India, and for the alleys being so narrow
in most neighborhoods, everyone does NOT necessarily
have to have a car. 


Alpana-ba,  you are right coming to point ... with
good transportation system or let me re-phrase it with
good public transport system.

Cars are not a necessity in cities like Mumbai where
you have well maintained bus (BEST) running till
middle of night which does not wait in stops endlessly
trying to fill up every inch of space,  OR where you
get a Auto in middle of night even in small bye-lanes
which is ready to take you to your destination at a
metered rate.
Cars are not required in many areas of Kolkata which
are covered by Subway or cheap shared autos which
often feeds the subway.

In these places, unless you are a road warrior, you
can live comfortably without a car.

But I would think it is a necessity in places like
Guwahati.  To use public transport, my parents will
have to walk a mile to get to the bus stop because it
keeps moving further regularly (thanks to
constructions and traffic managers who have no clue), 
get into an rickety overcrowded bus and wait till the
conductor is satisfied that the bus is full till brim,
walk another mile after getting down   imagine
this in the summer months of June/July or on rainy
days .   OR,  the alternative is to hire an Auto which
will ask for an astronomical amount, meters are just a
showpiece.  After 9 PM, situation is worse ... no bus
and double fare for Autos.  Add to this, the frequent
Chakka Bandhs, Bus drivers strike, Bus owners strike
and what not.

Would it be unfair if they use a car ? I guess no.

Think about your trips to Guwahati and you will
understand what I mean.



That was not in my mind - to compare the streets of
India and the US. Because I know if I did I would not
win.
 
Now, just for argument's sake, even if one does
compare, parking on a real road is one thing, and
having to park on top of garbage that comes off the
drain the day before is another. I won't even have to
mention about the space to turn around, etc.
 
My point was, with good  transportation system like
they have in India, and for the alleys being so narrow
in most neighborhoods, everyone does NOT necessarily
have to have a car. 
 
 Cras are good for going to parties in all finery and
when it is raining.
 
Right. And if it does not flood the roads.
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

In order to make spiritual progress you must be
patient like a tree and humble like a blade of grass
- Lakshmana
 
 
 

 Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2008 20:07:45 -0800 From:
jaipurschool at yahoo.com To: assam at assamnet.org
Subject: Re: [Assam] Tata's Nano - any innovation or
waste pf consumer's money  even in US people have to
park on the street - infront of most town houses -
like the one I used to stay at. You just need to take
a permit Same is all over Washington DC for is
residents. They park on the street.  Cras are good
for going to parties in all finery and when it is
raining.  Umesh  Alpana B. Sarangapani
absarangapani at hotmail.com wrote: This is good...
 ...it would be even better if road conditions were
better. I've seen people having to park on the street
(that includes posh areas in Delhi, MP, Tamil Nadu,
Karnataka, and Assam, of course). Many don't even have
a proper verandah, leave alone a space/garage inside
their compound.   A country where public
transportation has been so good (that includes Taxis,
Rickshwas, Auto-Rickshwas, 'Trackers' and what not!),
more than private cars, the road space/condition needs
to be taken care of first. And parking space near the
markets? As you know!, that's another nightmare!  
If I was a current resident of India, I would still
prefer going by a bus to places. But I understand the
economy has been booming...the only thing is that
every issue that contributes towards having a quality
living needs to be taken care of, be it by the
government itself (if that is not done by the
government), or by the influential business
magnates/tycoons/groups.   My two cents' worth.  
  In order to make spiritual progress you
must be patient like a tree and humble like a blade of
grass - Lakshmana  Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2008
01:28:38 -0800 From: jaipurschool at yahoo.com To:
assam at assamnet.org Subject: [Assam] Tata's Nano -
any innovation or waste pf consumer's money 
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Ratan-Tata-unveils-Rs-1lakh-Nano/259912/
 Umesh Sharma  Washington D.C.   1-202-215-4328
[Cell]  Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard
University, Class of 2005 
http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/index.html (Edu
info)  http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ (Management Info)  
  www.gse.harvard.edu/iep (where the above 2 are
used ) http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/   
http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/ 
- Support the World
Aids Awareness campaign this month with Yahoo! for
Good ___
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[Assam] HOJO

Just a few complaints on HOJOs. There are tonns of
such complaints on HOJO and other budget hotels if you
search the net .

  Food for thought for  some HArvard MBA on how HOJO
(and other budgest hotels)  are still in business

http://www.talkingtree.com/blog/index.cfm/2003/10/25/HoJo


http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g60887-d123704-Reviews-Howard_Johnson_Inn_Suites_Springfield-Springfield_Illinois.html




  

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[Assam] HOJO

Proves what I heard about HOJO -- that it is not
something a
discerning traveler would patronize. Obviously the
jokes I heard when
we moved to St. Louis in 1975 had merit.

Or the Days Inn
http://www.totalfrance.com/days_inn/days_inn_nightmare.html

Or Travelodge --
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/travelodge.html

Or the endless list of budget hotels in US.

And many of these rated by AAA with its Diamond
rating.

So when a desi H1B, highly skilled in information
collection ,
knowing 'tripadvisor' like the palm of one's hand,
raking in high
wages, go zero in on a HOJO as a BRAND NAME to
trust, something tells
me there is a problem here, of expectations, at the
very least.

Hmm.. not as high wage as you Sir ... sitting in a
luxury bunglow and advising Indians.
So I should discount HOJO as brand name, Days Inn as
brand name ... can you suggest something which I
should consider.

And BTW, why do the NRAs who can afford bunglows and
Gas Guzzlers go for cheap hotels in India (and then
use their experience as a benchmark against Indian
Hotel industry).
Though you have learned all about my wage, I am not
exactly sure about your wage but from some bits and
pieces of info I have accumulated, it will be safe to
assume that you can afford 5 stars during your short
stays in India .

There could be other problems too that one can
speculate on. But that
I will leave to the imagination of readers :-).

How does it stay in business?

ONE answer would be that it has a sales weapon.
Perhaps cost. There

Why not apply the same logic to the Dumdum hotel.

are people who cannot afford any better and are
forced to take what
is offered. Like the low cost grocery stores where
they sell
sub-standard and wilted or slightly rotting but
still edible produce.
Or the slum dwellings in ghettos. Or the used car
bought for $ 500.
So on and so forth.

Those of us who went thru the immigrant experience
and had no money
when we arrived in the country, should know. The
search for a motel
under $10.00 per night before darkness falls in
our weekend forays
into the heartland and backwoods of California is
still fresh in my
memory. Fortunately though we always did find a
clean and safe place.
Took a little doing, but one was always available,
somewhere.

ANOTHER could be that these HOJO s are facilities in
certain
locations, exceptions to the norm. I am not
familiar with New York

Excuse and more excuse.
BTW, any explanation why such HOJOs are rated by AAA
with its diamond rating which lives upto its
reputation.

Actually I can suggest you an easier excuse. Just
blame all these complaints against Desis suffering
from inferiority complex.

City, but 34th street does not ring a bell as a
destination spot. So,
while HOJO at 34th street may be like a Dum Dum
airport three star
facility or the one at Orlando is like a dharamsala
at Mathura,
others might be just fine and up to standard as
anything that could
be expected.

Therefore boils down to doing one's due
diligence. Because there
ARE plenty of good, reliable and reasonably priced
motels and hotels
across the USA, in small towns and big cities. I am
not that well
traveled, but from the little I have seen, US hotels
and motels are
the best VALUES

There are CHOICES everywhere just the way you found in
Calcutta or Delhi

I have travelled extensively in India (particularly
South India) and there are definitely decent budget
hotels.

But anyway, just by seeing one or two hotels in one
or two locations of India, you seem to be the expert
:-) you know I know better thing

and most easily available in the world. Just like
food.

On the other hand, are there such choices at Dum
Dum? Or at Guahati?

That IS the issue, the point of the debate.

At 7:03 AM -0800 1/13/08, Krishnendu Chakraborty
wrote:
Just a few complaints on HOJOs. There are tonns of
such complaints on HOJO and other budget hotels if
you
search the net .

Food for thought for some HArvard MBA on how HOJO
(and other budgest hotels) are still in business

http://www.talkingtree.com/blog/index.cfm/2003/10/25/HoJo

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g60887-d123704-Reviews-Howard_Johnson_Inn_Suites_Springfield-Springfield_Illinois.html

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know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.
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[Assam] Border Trouble

Indian police seems to be extremely good 
in getting such confessions very fast, even from
the dreaded ISI cadres.  And that without 
complaints of torture, humane but harsh
interrogation methods like 
water-boarding and the like.

A side thought here: Indian/Assam police 
ought to sell their expertise to the clueless CIA
  or spook agencies like Stratfor ( 
operated by an ex CIA agent) , who can't seem to 
be able
get any conviction of any of their 
detainees here in the US . There is good money 
here.

Heh-heh   why don't they learn from their friends
in Guatanamo.



  

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[Assam] HOJO

South India) and there are definitely decent budget
hotels.

Well!!! That therefore sets the standard of the
Indian hotel
industry. Must be another example of
cutting edge statistical savvy, driving desis to
making sweeping
judgements from the exceptions to the norm.

At 10:29 AM -0800 1/13/08, Krishnendu Chakraborty
wrote:
Proves what I heard about HOJO -- that it is not
something a
discerning traveler would patronize. Obviously the
jokes I heard when
we moved to St. Louis in 1975 had merit.

Or the Days Inn
http://www.totalfrance.com/days_inn/days_inn_nightmare.html

Or Travelodge --
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/travelodge.html

Or the endless list of budget hotels in US.

And many of these rated by AAA with its Diamond
rating.

And BTW, why do the NRAs who can afford bunglows and
Gas Guzzlers go for cheap hotels in India (and then
use their experience as a benchmark against Indian
Hotel industry).
Though you have learned all about my wage, I am not
exactly sure about your wage but from some bits and
pieces of info I have accumulated, it will be safe
to
assume that you can afford 5 stars during your short
stays in India .

There could be other problems too that one can
speculate on. But that
I will leave to the imagination of readers :-).

How does it stay in business?

ONE answer would be that it has a sales weapon.
Perhaps cost. There

Why not apply the same logic to the Dumdum hotel.

ANOTHER could be that these HOJO s are facilities
in
certain
locations, exceptions to the norm. I am not
familiar with New York

Excuse and more excuse.
BTW, any explanation why such HOJOs are rated by AAA
with its diamond rating which lives upto its
reputation.

Actually I can suggest you an easier excuse. Just
blame all these complaints against Desis suffering
from inferiority complex.

Therefore boils down to doing one's due
diligence. Because there
ARE plenty of good, reliable and reasonably priced
motels and hotels
across the USA, in small towns and big cities. I
am
not that well
traveled, but from the little I have seen, US
hotels
and motels are
the best VALUES

There are CHOICES everywhere just the way you found
in
Calcutta or Delhi

I have travelled extensively in India (particularly
South India) and there are definitely decent budget
hotels.

But anyway, just by seeing one or two hotels in one
or two locations of India, you seem to be the expert
:-) you know I know better thing

and most easily available in the world. Just like
food.

On the other hand, are there such choices at Dum
Dum? Or at Guahati?

That IS the issue, the point of the debate.

At 7:03 AM -0800 1/13/08, Krishnendu Chakraborty
wrote:
Just a few complaints on HOJOs. There are tonns of
such complaints on HOJO and other budget hotels if
you
search the net .

Food for thought for some HArvard MBA on how
HOJO
(and other budgest hotels) are still in business

http://www.talkingtree.com/blog/index.cfm/2003/10/25/HoJo

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g60887-d123704-Reviews-Howard_Johnson_Inn_Suites_Springfield-Springfield_Illinois.html

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[Assam] The Nano not so nano stuff

Chennai airport is definitely great and so is Mumbai
Domestic (not international) which was upgraded about
2 years back.

In Cal airport, the airport condition is definitely
not upto mark and  even locals do not venture out at
night. You took a risk venturing out even in Pre-Paid
taxi.

As far as the hotel goes,  for $30 a night (INR 1200) 
you cannot even expect a Gohali in ANY major city in
US   and Bed Bugs are common in Luxury hotels in NY
too.
Just check travelocity and you will see how the Star
hotels fare in US.  

My experience a couple of years back in a Hojo in
Orlando was unclean room, leaking toilet ceiling. 
When complained to Hojo the response was . our
hotels are operated by local frainchise and we have no
control !!


I must add that we( me and my wife ) faced exactly
similar situation 2 years
back. Now that you face exactly the same situation
shows the state of
progress of our nation.
When we arrived at the International terminal at
Cal, we walked our way
through exactly dark alleys into the domestic
terminal ( and it resembled
exactly what you say - a typical railway platform
in India ). Hardly
anything was open. We did find an internet cafe and
found out that the
Airport Hotel was fully booked. Upon enquiring, we
also found that there
were no rooms that you can rent out for the night
at the airport( they said
it was full). We went to the prepaid taxi counter
for the nearest hotel to
the airport. The hotel looked quite decent from the
outside. It is only
after you enter, you realise that it is a hell hole.
The funny part is that
they advertise it a star hotel( can't remember how
many stars) with some
newspaper clippings showing that how good the hotel
is. The room was just
big enough for a bed, once you put you luggages, there
is no place to walk.
The curtains, bedsheets have all acquired a sooth
colour from all the dust,
smoke and whatever else. All these comfort for
Rs1200/night. I found the
toilet unusable. After being bitten by bedbugs I was
out of the hotel at
6.30 am in the morning. I then decided that if I plan
to stay overnight at
any place in India, i will always book something
beforehand at a standard
place. The experience was just unbearable.
This is the first welcome you get when you visit your
country. We are
Indians and have experienced hardships before. Wonder
how foreigners feel
when  they come to India unprepared. There is no
safety, security and
honesty. Women are most vulnerable. I would never ask
any women to travel
alone in India.
On paper India is become a powerhouse. We don't even
have a decent airport
in the country( don't know about Chennai. My Tamil
friend says that it is at
par with international standards )
JS




  

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[Assam] The Nano not so nano stuff

Should that define the general standard of hotels
and motels across 
the USA? 


May be or may be not.  check this 
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11916682/

Also check the numerous blogs on hotels ... does not
look too good.

My experience in US says that the standard of hotels
have degraded rapidly over last 10 years or so.


Incidentally HOJO is owned by desis if I am not
mistaken. 
That might explain it 

Where did you get this piece of info ???  As I
understand it is owned by Wyndham Group and the CEO is
Stephen P. Holmes  does not sound an Indian Name
nor does he  look Indian.
HOJO Franchisees are owned by various people.  The one
I am talking about is owned by some hispanic person
... but does that mean HOJO will shrugg off all
responsibility ... I mean is it the American way of
doing business.

BTW, did you report it to AAA? 

Oh yes !  and they sent me a nice letter ... we have
forwarded your complaint to the local AAA Inspector !



I won't try to compare the US quality of motels and
hotels with 
Indian ones. It will not be fair to do so. But when
an Indian hotel 
charges prices like US hotels, 

Hmmm . where did it charge prices like US hotel. 
As I said,  first find a hotel in a Major US city
where it charges $30 that too for walkin customers!!

Two years back,  I visited Kanyakumari ...hotel was 3
star (as claimed by them and might be true) Rs1500 per
night ( $40)for a sea facing room and was excellent. 
 I had earlier experience in Goa (Tourist Dept hotel) 
in Calengute Beach (on the beach)  where a suite was
Rs1600 .   I will not say it was a Star facility but
clean and fantastic location (you can see the sea from
your bed).  
Try finding a sea facing hotel in a Tourist location
in US for that price  




  BTW,  how about comparing the Star hotels ... the
hotel in Orlando (HOJO) is a 2 star hotel as rated by
AAA



 How about it?

Should that define the general standard of hotels
and motels across 
the USA? Incidentally HOJO is owned by desis if I am
not mistaken. 
That might explain it :-). BTW, did you report it to
AAA?  It does 
make a difference. Once I was getting the run-around
on the published 
sale price and what I was being charged for a room
at a national 
chain rated by AAA. I paid but told the hotel clerk
that I am going 
straight to AAA about it.  Shortly thereafter I got
a call in my 
room, with apologies, and a refund.

I won't try to compare the US quality of motels and
hotels with 
Indian ones. It will not be fair to do so. But when
an Indian hotel 
charges prices like US hotels, you would expect it ,
at the  very 
least, to have similar amenities, even though it
could reasonably be 
argued that that they ought to be much better,
considering what that 
amount of Rupees can buy in the local marketplace.









At 8:07 AM -0800 1/11/08, Krishnendu Chakraborty
wrote:
The question of comparision does not arise because
you
DO NOT find a $30 hotel in major US city that too
near
airport.  To compare you will first need to find one
such hotel

BTW,  how about comparing the Star hotels ... the
hotel in Orlando (HOJO) is a 2 star hotel as rated by
AAA


To compare the quality of $ 30 hotels in the USA
where the minimum
wage is $ 6.55 per hour with those in India for the
same amount is
quite an interesting tactic.








  

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[Assam] The Nano not so nano stuff

The question of comparision does not arise because you
DO NOT find a $30 hotel in major US city that too near
airport.  To compare you will first need to find one
such hotel

BTW,  how about comparing the Star hotels ... the
hotel in Orlando (HOJO) is a 2 star hotel as rated by
AAA


To compare the quality of $ 30 hotels in the USA
where the minimum 
wage is $ 6.55 per hour with those in India for the
same amount is 
quite an interesting tactic.














At 6:57 AM -0800 1/11/08, Krishnendu Chakraborty
wrote:
Chennai airport is definitely great and so is Mumbai
Domestic (not international) which was upgraded about
2 years back.

In Cal airport, the airport condition is definitely
not upto mark and  even locals do not venture out at
night. You took a risk venturing out even in Pre-Paid
taxi.

As far as the hotel goes,  for $30 a night (INR 1200)
you cannot even expect a Gohali in ANY major city
in
US   and Bed Bugs are common in Luxury hotels in NY
too.
Just check travelocity and you will see how the Star
hotels fare in US. 

My experience a couple of years back in a Hojo in
Orlando was unclean room, leaking toilet ceiling.
When complained to Hojo the response was . our
hotels are operated by local frainchise and we have
no
control !!





  

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[Assam] The Nano not so nano stuff

Incidentally the bed-bug infestation in NYC is NOT
confined to sleazy 
hotels. It is an epidemic even in some of the
city's glitziest 
high-rise condos and apartment houses, a public
health crisis, almost.

Exactly  and so Bed bugs in some sleazy hotel in India
should not be considered as a bench mark

*** American consumers have many recourses. Easiest
of it is 
availability of CHOICE.

We did move out a day after the incident  did not have
much choice ... it was a holiday weekend.  In fact, 
on day of incident we did not have ANY CHOICE except
moving to some 5 star paying a couple of hundred
dollars.   you will surely have such CHOICE everywhere
in India if you are ready to pay for 5 stars


However,  having choice does not justify the business
model of HOJO ... an  American Company.   Imagine you
buy a Tata Indica/Nano in Guwahati and if there are
problem,  Tata says your dealer should take care of it
 we do not have any responsibility !



I have no trouble believing that.

Actually my very first experience in a Chicago 
Travelodge in 1976 
was very much like what these videos portray.

But to suggest or imply that these facilities in NYC
or Chicago or LA 
or SF or Boston define the hotel/motel scene in the
USA is what 
defies ordinary logic.

Incidentally the bed-bug infestation in NYC is NOT
confined to sleazy 
hotels. It is an epidemic even in some of the city's
glitziest 
high-rise condos and apartment houses, a public health
crisis, almost.

Wonder where they came from.


  HOJO Franchisees are owned by various people.  The
one
I am talking about is owned by some hispanic person
... but does that mean HOJO will shrugg off all
responsibility ... I mean is it the American way of
doing business.


*** American consumers have many recourses. Easiest of
it is 
availability of CHOICE. In more damaging instances
consumer courts 
could be approached for damages.  If I go into a motel
that causes me 
concern, the very first thing I do is to go check the
room out BEFORE 
I pay and check in.

I did that in Kolkata too, after I experienced  one of
those 
three-star rated joints near Dum Dum the first time.
Next time I did 
not go by the Pre-paid Taxi operator's recommendation
or the taxi 
driver's urging. I went, checked the room, looked
around the windows 
to see if the panes were all in, flushed the toilet to
see if it 
worked , looked under the bed cover , turned the
shower on to see if 
it worked or if it had hot water and so forth. In this
place with a 
Rs. 2200/- per night  rate  the toilet did not flush.
It was a fast 
good bye. UNfortunately the CHOICES were few. I had to
settle for 
something not a whole lot better, but at least the
toilet flushed. 
The third time I found Stadel.

But I stayed at Sonar Bangla for a couple of nights.
That was great! 
But hurt the wallet.






At 8:59 AM -0800 1/11/08, Krishnendu Chakraborty
wrote:
  Should that define the general standard of hotels
and motels across
the USA?


May be or may be not.  check this 
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11916682/

Also check the numerous blogs on hotels ... does not
look too good.

My experience in US says that the standard of hotels
have degraded rapidly over last 10 years or so.


Incidentally HOJO is owned by desis if I am not
mistaken.
That might explain it

Where did you get this piece of info ???  As I
understand it is owned by Wyndham Group and the CEO
is
Stephen P. Holmes  does not sound an Indian Name
nor does he  look Indian.
HOJO Franchisees are owned by various people.  The
one
I am talking about is owned by some hispanic person
... but does that mean HOJO will shrugg off all
responsibility ... I mean is it the American way of
doing business.

BTW, did you report it to AAA?

Oh yes !  and they sent me a nice letter ... we have
forwarded your complaint to the local AAA Inspector !



I won't try to compare the US quality of motels and
hotels with
Indian ones. It will not be fair to do so. But when
an Indian hotel
charges prices like US hotels,

Hmmm . where did it charge prices like US hotel.
As I said,  first find a hotel in a Major US city
where it charges $30 that too for walkin customers!!

Two years back,  I visited Kanyakumari ...hotel was 3
star (as claimed by them and might be true) Rs1500
per
night ( $40)for a sea facing room and was excellent.
  I had earlier experience in Goa (Tourist Dept
hotel)
in Calengute Beach (on the beach)  where a suite was
Rs1600 .   I will not say it was a Star facility but
clean and fantastic location (you can see the sea
from
your bed). 
Try finding a sea facing hotel in a Tourist location
in US for that price  



  

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[Assam] Thank you, Mr Tata, for thinking of the common man!

Wiki defines Tata's as a a Gujarati-speaking Parsi
family.  Don't know the truth though.


Thanks Dr. B.

But I suspect, its a bit more than that. As Ratan
Tata is a well-known name,
it might look good for some ethinic group or the other
to claim Ratan is
one of us. In this case a Gujarati.

Dilip da mentions some Parsees in Venezuela who have
adapted very well. That
is a plus for the Parsees. I think, though the Tatas
settled down in
Jamshedpur, but of course they have operations
world-wide.

But, I agree with you regarding the car's impact in
Assam. It will be a big
problem for states with fewer resources to handle the
onslaught of such
cheap cars.
The Assam Govt. might want to impose a levy or tax for
road improvements
(expansion) on the Nano (and also all vehicles). But,
I am dreaming. The
only thing that will happen is that there will be a
tax, but the roads will
remain the same.




On 1/11/08, DR BIKASH KUMAR DAS biku006 at
yahoo.co.in wrote:

 Respected Ram Kokaideo,
 Everyone take their own opinion while thinking.Human
tendencies like
 that.But to talk scientifically you are
right.Thanks. By the way Nano
 brings lot many other feature too.Like if one goses
to Malaysia- a lot
 words are similar to

Axomiya...Khobor-,Nama(name),Nombor,Tarikh,Asal(Origin),etc.
 Same way habits/prayer of greeks and we Assamese
mostly same,I found this
 with Coorgie(Kodagu) of Karnataka. Hope someone will
also get more.
 But sure Nano is what you said with higher
thinkings
 Regards.

 Bikash



  

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[Assam] South India Pilgrimage

The best place to visit/stay in Kanyakumari is
Vivekananda Kendra . We stayed there in a earlier
visit (did not get acco during last trip). Do not
expect luxury but you will like it.  However,  advance
booking is must.
In fact,  out of all south Indian cities, I liked
Kanyakumari (and  Mysore) the most ... may be because
I found people (even touts)  very friendly and
helpful.  

Somehow, I did not find Trivandrum or Kanyakumari to
be that dirty. May be my expectations were low. I have
been there a couple of times. Or it might depend upon
which place you visit. 

BTW,  Kovalam is definitely good but my vote goes to
Goa beaches even when I compare to some of the beaches
in US.  Goa has a lot of variety and though it seems
to have been a bit dirty in recent years, it is
cleaner then most other places.

Alpana-ba,  did you visit the Art gallery in
Trivandrum  the paintings by Ravibarma. 


Women too were required to wear a dhoti. A
concession is made for themthough, they could wear
it over the sari/mekhela/etc. And of course
theycould keep wearing the top.
 
I need to make a little correction on what Ramgopal
has just said
 
Women are allowed to enter the temple ONLY with Sarees
(or Mekhela-Saador, I assume). But if they are wearing
Salwar-Kurta, pants, etc., they have to wrap around a
dhoti over that outfit. 
 
That's how the shops outside the temple survive, I
guess. 
 
So, it's all about money.
 
And yes, visiting the Vivekananda 'temple' - was like
a chore to be finished. Meditation? what is that?
 
 

 

In order to make spiritual progress you must be
patient like a tree and humble like a blade of grass
- Lakshmana
 
 
 

 Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2008 11:20:07 -0600 To: assam at
assamnet.org From: cmahanta at charter.net Subject:
Re: [Assam] South India Pilgrimage  I have not
entered a temple since I got defecated on by vultures
( I  mean REAL vultures-the birds) outside Kamakhya,
which I did not enter  after taking a peek into the
dark abyss with my fellow boarders from Don Bosco,
one Sunday afternoon, when we hiked up Narakasur Hill
 ( or is it Nilachal?) in one of those mandatory long
marches that DBS  was well known for. The filth
always turns me off. I remember the  repulsive
environment at Puri from an architectural tour in
1964.  What I could never understand is how the
environment of a place for  prayer or spiritual
redemption can be as vile as Hindu temples in  India
are and how the devotees accept them as either the
norm or  inevitable.   Was it not an unusually
enlightened :-) Sankaracharyya or some Hindu 
intellectual who wondered why he has to go to a Temple
if the gods  are omnipresent or something to that
effect? A very astute question  I thought :-).  I
do understand that there might be some value to
rituals as a  vehicle of faith.   But like this?
  What gives?  At 10:43 AM -0600
1/11/08, Ram Sarangapani wrote: On the way heading
back from our trip to Kovalam beach (and Kerala), the
driver convinced us that a trip to the Padbhanama
temple was really the thing to do... you know, good
for the soul, etc.  Trivandrum is also one of
those dirtiest places on earth not to visit again,
if possible. The temple (an old one) occupies probably
an entire city block or more.  Well, we parked,
and about to visit, when we were told that it was
imperative for us to wear dhotis to enter the temple.
The men, were required to wear only a dhoti - no
pants, shirts, ganji, wallet, and of course shoes.
Women too were required to wear a dhoti. A concession
is made for them though, they could wear it over the
sari/mekhela/etc. And of course they could keep
wearing the top.  The touts who sell some
threadbare dhotis are also around to make it easy.
The driver advised to keep all our clothes, wallets
etc in the car, and for us to finish our darsan.
That kind of scared me. This was a rental car. What
if the driver decided to take off? I only had a few
Rs. in my hand - no passport, id or whatever. Gave
me the shivers ... but lucky for us the driver was a
good man.  Anyway, while the temple itself was
impressive, inside it was sheer chaos. There were
touts wanting you to part with your Rs. There was
one guy, right at the gate, armed with a huge bamboo
staff. He came running to inspect Alpana's bag - no
wallets, cell phones etc. The cabbie, again came to
our rescue - he held these for us.  Inside there
is this other guy, who sells 4 small earthenware lamps
(with oil) for Rs 100 or something. These are in a
plate, you take the lamps, pour out the oil in a
container, which the oilman, I guess resells (back to
you if possible).  This is similar to other
places of worship/interest in Kanyakumari (another
dirty place to place on the list). The Hanuman temple
is also full of crooks. And the last place to
meditate is the Vivekananda Rock. It was too
crowded. It even has a meditation room - only that
too is crowded, and reeks of body odor. The rock
itself is clean and nice, if only there were no
tourists around :)

[Assam] The Nano not so nano stuff

So, bed-bugs in Indian hotels is a rarity huh?
Since I am no expert 
on hotel hopping in India I will just have to let 

But you surely are a hotel hopper in US and know that
Luxury hotels in US DO have Bed Bugs.  Is it a rarity
in US ... by your own admission NO

 Hmmm! I wonder why THAT hotel had vacancy,
while the rest were 
all full,

I thought you had a little more commonsense.  We
booked it in Advance ... through internet (HOJO site)
if you want to know how.

If I am not mistaken, Orlando  has more motels and
hotels per square 
mile than most other cities in the entire USA

Sure you are not mistaken ?  I mean you were pretty
confident that HOJO is owned by Desi :-) 

if not the world. And 
THAT  HOJO becomes the the standard bearer of the
industry? 

Hmmm   the same old game.  the Msn news on bed
bugs talks about hotels OTHER THAN THAT HOJO.  Search
the blogs and you will find numerous THAT HOJO/Days
Inn/ Travelodge etc.  Let me know if you need some
help in searching


Kup Monduk. The proverbial frog in the well whose 
world view is formed by its confines.

That is more appropriate for you who  build his views
on India staying out of India for over 20 years.

*** A very poor analogy. An automobile, a product, 
is different from 
a hotel FRANCHISE, a service.

I booked the hotel through Howard Johnson website and
booked it just because it had the brand label.
Similarly you buy a product based on brand label.  

If the brand owner shruggs off responsibility, it only
means unethical business practice.   
Again,  I did thought you had more wit to understand
this.


  Exactly  and so Bed bugs in some sleazy hotel in
India
should not be considered as a bench mark



 Heh-heh!

So, bed-bugs in Indian hotels is a rarity huh?
Since I am no expert 
on hotel hopping in India I will just have to let
the experts and the 
experienced judge that one.


  We did move out a day after the incident  did not
have
much choice ... it was a holiday weekend.

 Hmmm! I wonder why THAT hotel had vacancy, while
the rest were 
all full, in spite of bed-bugs and leaky bathrooms
that must define 
the state of hotels and motels, except those horribly
expensive five 
star rated ones!

If I am not mistaken, Orlando  has more motels and
hotels per square 
mile than most other cities in the entire USA, if not
the world. And 
THAT  HOJO becomes the the standard bearer of the
industry? 
Interesting indeed.  There is an ancient Oxomiya  
phrase that 
describes the tack: Kup Monduk. The proverbial frog in
the well whose 
world view is formed by its confines.

But really it is an unnecessary defensiveness. No one
is attempting 
to judge the INdian condition with an American
benchmark. Looks tacky.


  
However,  having choice does not justify the business
model of HOJO ... an  American Company.   Imagine you
buy a Tata Indica/Nano in Guwahati and if there are
problem,  Tata says your dealer should take care of
it
 we do not have any responsibility !


*** A very poor analogy. An automobile, a product,  is
different from 
a hotel FRANCHISE, a service. Consumers are protected
by Lemon Laws 
against defective autos. Filthy hotel operation is a
public health 
responsibility, regulated by local authorities. One
would have 
thought an expert in American business practices would
know the 
difference between a franchise and a product
liability.




At 10:28 AM -0800 1/11/08, Krishnendu Chakraborty
wrote:
  Incidentally the bed-bug infestation in NYC is
NOT
confined to sleazy
hotels. It is an epidemic even in some of the
city's glitziest
high-rise condos and apartment houses, a public
health crisis, almost.

Exactly  and so Bed bugs in some sleazy hotel in
India
should not be considered as a bench mark

*** American consumers have many recourses. Easiest
of it is
availability of CHOICE.

We did move out a day after the incident  did not
have
much choice ... it was a holiday weekend.  In fact,
on day of incident we did not have ANY CHOICE except
moving to some 5 star paying a couple of hundred
dollars.   you will surely have such CHOICE
everywhere
in India if you are ready to pay for 5 stars


However,  having choice does not justify the business
model of HOJO ... an  American Company.   Imagine you
buy a Tata Indica/Nano in Guwahati and if there are
problem,  Tata says your dealer should take care of
it
 we do not have any responsibility !



I have no trouble believing that.

Actually my very first experience in a Chicago
Travelodge in 1976
was very much like what these videos portray.

But to suggest or imply that these facilities in
NYC
or Chicago or LA
or SF or Boston define the hotel/motel scene in the
USA is what
defies ordinary logic.

Incidentally the bed-bug infestation in NYC is NOT
confined to sleazy
hotels. It is an epidemic even in some of the city's
glitziest
high-rise condos and apartment houses, a public
health
crisis, almost.

Wonder where they came from.


   HOJO Franchisees are owned by various people

[Assam] The Nano not so nano stuff

 other
than the 
exorbitant prices. Now I have found the Ahuja guest
houses which 
serve my needs quite well.,



  I booked the hotel through Howard Johnson website
and
booked it just because it had the brand label.

 I see the problem: HOJO as the BRAND of choice . 
BTW, where did 
that quality reference came from ? Hope it was not
from some FOBs 
:-). HOJO ,even way back in the 70s  used to be the
butt of jokes 
EVEN  here in the midwest. Many are operated by desis
. That is how I 
associated its ownership.
If it was AAA rated, I would have gone to AAA for
complaints.  They 
do care about their credibility.








If I am not mistaken, Orlando  has more motels and
hotels per square
mile than most other cities in the entire USA

Sure you are not mistaken ?  I mean you were pretty
confident that HOJO is owned by Desi :-)

if not the world. And
THAT  HOJO becomes the the standard bearer of the
industry?

Hmmm   the same old game.  the Msn news on bed
bugs talks about hotels OTHER THAN THAT HOJO.  Search
the blogs and you will find numerous THAT HOJO/Days
Inn/ Travelodge etc.  Let me know if you need some
help in searching


Kup Monduk. The proverbial frog in the well whose
world view is formed by its confines.

That is more appropriate for you who  build his views
on India staying out of India for over 20 years.

*** A very poor analogy. An automobile, a product,
is different from
a hotel FRANCHISE, a service.

I booked the hotel through Howard Johnson website and
booked it just because it had the brand label.
Similarly you buy a product based on brand label. 

If the brand owner shruggs off responsibility, it
only
means unethical business practice.  
Again,  I did thought you had more wit to understand
this.


   Exactly  and so Bed bugs in some sleazy hotel in
India
should not be considered as a bench mark



 Heh-heh!

So, bed-bugs in Indian hotels is a rarity huh?
Since I am no expert
on hotel hopping in India I will just have to let
the experts and the
experienced judge that one.


   We did move out a day after the incident  did
not
have
much choice ... it was a holiday weekend.

 Hmmm! I wonder why THAT hotel had vacancy, while
the rest were
all full, in spite of bed-bugs and leaky bathrooms
that must define
the state of hotels and motels, except those horribly
expensive five
star rated ones!

If I am not mistaken, Orlando  has more motels and
hotels per square
mile than most other cities in the entire USA, if not
the world. And
THAT  HOJO becomes the the standard bearer of the
industry?
Interesting indeed.  There is an ancient Oxomiya 
phrase that
describes the tack: Kup Monduk. The proverbial frog
in
the well whose
world view is formed by its confines.

But really it is an unnecessary defensiveness. No one
is attempting
to judge the INdian condition with an American
benchmark. Looks tacky.


   
However,  having choice does not justify the
business
model of HOJO ... an  American Company.   Imagine
you
buy a Tata Indica/Nano in Guwahati and if there are
problem,  Tata says your dealer should take care of
it
 we do not have any responsibility !


*** A very poor analogy. An automobile, a product, 
is
different from
a hotel FRANCHISE, a service. Consumers are protected
by Lemon Laws
against defective autos. Filthy hotel operation is a
public health
responsibility, regulated by local authorities. One
would have
thought an expert in American business practices
would
know the
difference between a franchise and a product
liability.




At 10:28 AM -0800 1/11/08, Krishnendu Chakraborty
wrote:
   Incidentally the bed-bug infestation in NYC is
NOT
confined to sleazy
hotels. It is an epidemic even in some of the
city's glitziest
high-rise condos and apartment houses, a public
health crisis, almost.

Exactly  and so Bed bugs in some sleazy hotel in
India
should not be considered as a bench mark

*** American consumers have many recourses.
Easiest
of it is
availability of CHOICE.

We did move out a day after the incident  did not
have
much choice ... it was a holiday weekend.  In fact,
on day of incident we did not have ANY CHOICE except
moving to some 5 star paying a couple of hundred
dollars.   you will surely have such CHOICE
everywhere
in India if you are ready to pay for 5 stars


However,  having choice does not justify the
business
model of HOJO ... an  American Company.   Imagine
you
buy a Tata Indica/Nano in Guwahati and if there are
problem,  Tata says your dealer should take care of
it
 we do not have any responsibility !



I have no trouble believing that.

Actually my very first experience in a Chicago
Travelodge in 1976
was very much like what these videos portray.

But to suggest or imply that these facilities in
NYC
or Chicago or LA
or SF or Boston define the hotel/motel scene in the
USA is what
defies ordinary logic.

Incidentally the bed-bug infestation in NYC is NOT
confined to sleazy
hotels. It is an epidemic even in some of the city's
glitziest
high-rise condos

[Assam] The Nano not so nano stuff

, unlike around DumDum.

But my curiosity remains: If HOJO 's business model
has no room to 
respond to customer complaints and disaffections, and
THAT HOJO 
franchise epitomize the state of the motel/hotel
business, as you 
argue,  it could mean only two things:

Customers are fools and don't know or care when they
are 
getting the short end
of the stick and still keep going back to them.

Or that there are no other choices available and are
forced to.

Question is which is true?  I am certain it won't take
the brains of 
a steel-trap  minded IIT engineer or IIM business whiz
to figure that 
out.


  Just check up Tripadvisor.com and you will find
complaints against numerous hotels in US not just
THAT HOJO.

 Surprise of surprises! I did not realize US
hotels can be bad. I 
am devastated!!

But there is an antidote to it. Isn't there? When you
see the 
complaints should you go back to them? Or are there no
choices?



BTW,  you (and many NRA/NRI) have numerous complaint
against different Indian products/services.  Ask an
Harvard MBA to explain how these Indian businesses
are
surviving.

 Do they? Must be their false sense of
superiority, making you 
Indians look bad.

  I do have some ideas, but I lack common sense. Why
don't you tell 
us? You are the expert.


  As a matter of fact,  I did not find it in any
hotel
in India ... even not so expensive ones ... may be I
was lucky.

 Nooo! It must be the American hotels that are
hotbeds of 
infestation.  You have pointed it out yourself  with
THAT HOJO 
example from Orlando that must be the archetype of US
motels/hotels.

  The hotels ranged from budget to 5 stars
like Park

*** I happen to know a whole lot about the Park Hotel.
I was there 
when it opened. My close buddy and then partner was
the hotel 
architect and sat with Jit Paul in his a/c office. 
But that was long 
ago. I hope the inside story has since gotten better.


  Also,  what is important here is should
(ethically) a
chain owner own up the responsibility or just sell
his
name and sit tight.

*** Wow! I learn something everyday.

So what should we surmise from this piece of wisdom
that you shared?

A: AAA rating means nothing. They rate it ** or *** 
to a 
hellhole like HOJO franchise.

B:  That HOJO customers , American fools, flock to
it, in 
spite of it being the pits.

Why else would HOJO won't live up to its
responsibilities while 
selling its name  ? That is the big conundrum here,
isn't it?  But I 
am sure an IIM MBA can explain the riddle. Shall we?



  
We know about your apathy towards FOB

*** It is not apathy. It is a knowledge gleaned from
observing many a 
desi in these shores who make sweeping judgements
about the world 
from tiny examples and insignificant experiences,
while remaining 
mired in a defensive mode from their own inferiority
complexes borne 
out of decades of ineffectiveness in improving their
national lot.



  Heh-heh   couple of years back I used a AAA
Approved auto repair shop which was trying to rip me
with an estimate of $1600.  I moved to a different
shop and was done with $900 ... .
When I complained to AAA they came up with
explanations like our Approved shops give 1 year
warranty on repairs etc. 
And I already mentioned about the fate of my
complaint
to AAA in this issue.
Want to know more ?   AAA gave me an incorrect Auto
Insurance quote last year and dropped my collission
coverage.  When I contacted, they added the same and
charged me $400 extra.  It was only after I moved to
Dept of Insurance, did they waived the additional
charge. Being a recent incident I have all the
documents if you want to verify.


 No need to prove. This I can believe . I always
go to dealership 
repair shops , even though I know I pay more, because
they are more 
reliable.


  but the company
which owns HOJO also owns Ramada which run some star
category hotels. Also, HOJO hotels are rated 2 - 3
star by AAA.



On the other hand, I am yet to be burnt on a AAA rated
motel. There 
however are different ratings. One has to know what
the AAA one 
diamond, two diamond or three diamond ratings are and
what the black 
diamonds  represent or red diamonds represent. They do
not have  STAR 
(*) ratings.  I just happen to have a AA tour book on
my desk, and it 
does not show either HOJO or Ramada Inn in their 
recommended 
hotels/motels list, much less rate them with stars.


I won't reply any more on this thread.

The POINT here is that, someone pointing out the dirty
laundry of the 
Indian condition does not necessarily mean that the
critic is 
attempting to compare it with the American or European
or the 
developed world.  So the abject defensiveness
displayed by the 
offended proves only one thing: Their own inferiority
complex.















At 1:42 PM -0800 1/11/08, Krishnendu Chakraborty
wrote:
But I have also been fortunate
enough now to go stay in hotels that are safer
bets.

Just the way I have been fortunate to stay in clean

[Assam] Tata's Nano - any innovation or waste of consumer's money

2008-01-10 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

Alpana-ba

Improving road condition and road to vehicle ratio is
definietly one of the  highest priority for India.

However, street parking, public parking near markets
etc are a common problem in Boston as well. The same
goes true for Veranda's as well. In Boston suburbs 2
Bed condos with no balcony sell for 250K even in this
dull real estate market. The price is much higher in
city.

In fact,  my view on driving in America changed
completely during my current stint in Boston (after
the earlier stints in sleepy towns of upstate NY and
in KY).  

Driving is a nightmare with red light jumping, lane
violation, traffic jam, pedestrians (jay walking) etc.
 The only element missing is cows, authorickshaws and
thelas :-)  ... even giant potholes are common,
particularly after winter.

It takes me 50 mins to drive 10 miles from work to
home even though both my work and home are in Boston
suburbs (need not travel through Boston city). 

The plus is, now I am pretty confident that I can
drive in India with ease :)  

But with Nano and other similar affordable vehicles
coming up, sure the only option to move around in
Indian cities  will be to walk . even the bus will
not move.


  From: Alpana B. Sarangapani
 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 To: assam@assamnet.org
 Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:48:54 -0600
 Subject: Re: [Assam] Tata's Nano - any innovation or
 waste pf consumer's money
 
 This is good...
  
 ...it would be even better if road conditions were
 better. I've seen people having to park on the
 street (that includes posh areas in Delhi, MP, Tamil
 Nadu, Karnataka, and Assam, of course). Many don't
 even have a proper verandah, leave alone a
 space/garage inside their compound. 
  
 A country where public transportation has been so
 good (that includes Taxis, Rickshwas,
 Auto-Rickshwas, 'Trackers' and what not!), more than
 private cars, the road space/condition needs to be
 taken care of first. And parking space near the
 markets? As you know!, that's another nightmare! 
  
 If I was a current resident of India, I would still
 prefer going by a bus to places. But I understand
 the economy has been booming...the only thing is
 that every issue that contributes towards having a
 quality living needs to be taken care of, be it by
 the government itself (if that is not done by the
 government), or by the influential business
 magnates/tycoons/groups. 
  
 My two cents' worth. 
  
  
  
 
 
  
 
 In order to make spiritual progress you must be
 patient like a tree and humble like a blade of
 grass
 - Lakshmana
  
  
  
 
  Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2008 01:28:38 -0800 From:
 [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: assam@assamnet.org
 Subject: [Assam] Tata's Nano - any innovation or
 waste pf consumer's money 

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Ratan-Tata-unveils-Rs-1lakh-Nano/259912/
  Umesh Sharma  Washington D.C.   1-202-215-4328
 [Cell]  Ed.M. - International Education Policy
 Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard
 University, Class of 2005 
 http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/index.html (Edu
 info)  http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ (Management Info) 
www.gse.harvard.edu/iep (where the above 2 are
 used ) http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/   
 http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/ 
 - Support the World
 Aids Awareness campaign this month with Yahoo! for
 Good
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[Assam] Tata's Nano - any innovation or waste of consumer's money

2008-01-10 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

Here, especially in Texas, businesses are bound to
provide (if they want to survive) parking places to
get customers, but in India that
theme/consideration is not even there - and it's ok 

You Texans  are indeed spoilt :)  This idea of
business providing parking is not true in Boston,
particularly downtown area. There is a huge Macy's in
downtown with no parking (well there are private
parkings at an astronomical charge of $6 an hour).

In India (at least Mumbai),  this concept is catching
up.  Major shopping malls like InOrbit, Crossroads and
departmental stores like Shoppers Stop, Big Bazar etc 
do provide parking , though sometimes at a fee.

but the road condition in the areas that my folks
live in India is, in no way comparable to any place
in the US. Thats my perspective only - and I
believe its an unbiased, uncompetitive one - on
what I see. 

I had the same perception until I saw Boston winter. 
Some roads in/around Boston can sure compete with
Guwahati roads.  However,  I am no way comparing US
roads to India 


But the pollution and road condition that exist in
those cities in India is just not comparable. 

I believe, one of the major factors of this condition
in India is population density.  After being in Boston
for 1+ year ,  I am tending to believe that population
density is directly proportionate to traffic, road,
pollution etc.  Even though it is a debatable topic, I
 firmly believe that the number one step India need
today is  controlling population.



 But with Nano and other similar affordable vehicles
coming up, sure the only option to move around in
Indian cities will be to walk . even the bus will
not move.
 
That simply is my point too, Krishnendu. They need
good and expanded roads, not cars. 
 
Everybody complains about it, but it has been sort
of a status symbol to have atleast a Hyundai Santro in
front of the house. 
 
Here, especially in Texas, businesses are bound to
provide (if they want to survive) parking places to
get customers, but in India that
theme/consideration is not even there - and it's ok
as long as the traditional way to go there is
maintained - public transportation. One side of that
tradition has been changed - more and more of those
cars are coming up - but same old narrow and dusty
roads are still there. 
 
It reminds me of the movie where Anil Kapoor wanted to
be the CM for a month to change things into the right
direction.
 
There are pot holes and uneven roads in other
countries, yes, but the road condition in the areas
that my folks live in India is, in no way comparable
to any place in the US. Thats my perspective only -
and I believe its an unbiased, uncompetitive one - on
what I see. 
 
We are a little spoilt here in Texas - everything is
huge. But the pollution and road condition that exist
in those cities in India is just not comparable. 
 
I love and am proud of the country that I'm originally
from, but can't ignore the facts that my own two eyes
could see. 
 
 
 
 
 
 

In order to make spiritual progress you must be
patient like a tree and humble like a blade of grass
- Lakshmana
 
 
 

 Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:31:19 -0800 From:
krish_gau at yahoo.com To: assam at assamnet.org
Subject: [Assam] Tata's Nano - any innovation or waste
of consumer's money  Alpana-ba  Improving road
condition and road to vehicle ratio is definietly one
of the highest priority for India.  However, street
parking, public parking near markets etc are a common
problem in Boston as well. The same goes true for
Veranda's as well. In Boston suburbs 2 Bed condos
with no balcony sell for 250K even in this dull real
estate market. The price is much higher in city. 
In fact, my view on driving in America changed
completely during my current stint in Boston (after
the earlier stints in sleepy towns of upstate NY and
in KY).   Driving is a nightmare with red light
jumping, lane violation, traffic jam, pedestrians
(jay walking) etc. The only element missing is cows,
authorickshaws and thelas :-) ... even giant potholes
are common, particularly after winter.  It takes me
50 mins to drive 10 miles from work to home even
though both my work and home are in Boston suburbs
(need not travel through Boston city).   The plus
is, now I am pretty confident that I can drive in
India with ease :)   But with Nano and other similar
affordable vehicles coming up, sure the only option
to move around in Indian cities will be to walk
. even the bus will not move. From:
Alpana B. Sarangapani  absarangapani at
hotmail.com  To: assam at assamnet.org  Date:
Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:48:54 -0600  Subject: Re:
[Assam] Tata's Nano - any innovation or  waste pf
consumer's moneyThis is good......it
would be even better if road conditions were 
better. I've seen people having to park on the 
street (that includes posh areas in Delhi, MP, Tamil
 Nadu, Karnataka, and Assam, of course). Many don't
 even have a proper verandah, leave alone a 
space/garage inside their compound. A country

[Assam] IBM: a MNC turned mental/psychological torture camp and Human Right violation

2008-01-04 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

I have never worked for IBM but worked for  TCS as a
trainee in Mumbai .  Long work hours are just part of
ANY IT company.  Use of email/internet for business
purpose is the norm in any private company (including
those in US) although some smaller company are a bit
lenient on these. 

PG owners are NOT controlled by IBM  and employees are
free to share rented accomodation. For food,  you have
the option to buy from outside or use tiffin service
(not sure how Bangalore fares on this ,  Mumbai is
flooded with tiffin services at every corner).

Studying Engineering with loans again is not IBM
mandated.  Study in Govt Engineering colleges are
pretty inexpensive and if one intend to go for private
engineering paying hefty capitation, it is by choice.

I am not sure what is the complaint against IBM ?  
And if there are complaints why they are not moving to
a company that supposedly treats better ?? The Indian
IT job market is booming at this point.  

In my first few days in Mumbai,  I (and many others
like me) was in a hotel room measuring 6 X 8 (double
bedded room !!)  with no ventilation . We were elated
when a co-worker found a hotel with rooms having
windows !!  Later we moved to a PG like accomodation
(no food) where each room had 3 or more bed with
common bath .   Such struggles are part of life.

It is true that stress is causing lot of physical and
psychological issues but just like corporate houses, 
ones ambition/ rat race  is equally responsible.  


Bikash-da,

the alternative is easy  -- go back to simple
village life--like Mahatma said.  no need for a
hi-tech society and its ills.  no pain no gain.

umesh

DR BIKASH KUMAR DAS biku006 at yahoo.co.in wrote:
Dear Umesh,
  Thanks.But I am talking on medical points of life
and our society.
  Regretted the personal attack by Ritutapan.I never
worked with HAL, but its a defence product unit and
was trying to get our Assamese entry being not a
single assamese there.Mr Borah must amend  words or 
the mind.I am  treating IT SW people in majority who
leads a uncertain life style...I am working since 26
yrs.Being in Govt we see more complications of life
for what one runs to get rescued. Because of ill
health in our society the hospitals are growing up
like cancer.. these are so many to say.But I am
talking in sense of social dangers ahead.I have
nothing if someone have mentally retarded kids, hell
of divorce and broken personal life etc...
   
   To say to Mr Borah,I carry a civil life now and we
medics do have this over all studies.
  Thanks. Umesh.
  Bikash da
  

umesh sharma jaipurschool at yahoo.com wrote:
  Bikash-da,

If any companys work culture is painful people would
leave -- it is no longer slavery or indentured labor
or bonded labor (as in many parts of India still).

Can you name any MNC which you think is dong ethical
work? Just to see what you think about private
business.

Umesh

Ritutapan Borah wrote: Hello Dr. Das,

You are right; definitely your mail was of disturbing
in nature.

I worked for IBM for 2 long years as S/W engineer. And
I can tell you frommy experience that,  the details
you are giving are far ... far from reality.
Compared to other IT companies (especially Indian
MNCs); IBM is among themost open-cultured, flexible
organization with due respect to work-life.balance and
flexible time.
I fear, your study (?) was quite flawed -- in the
sense that -- you are not mentioning about any other
IT companies. Please do a *comparative study* inyour
free time. You should consult someone who has seen in
and out of atleast 2-3 IT companies in India and also
IBM (If I am not wrong, you dealmore with Govt.
employees in HAL etc more than IT people). I can bet,
youmay have to repent for sending this mail with
not-so-comprehensive
conclusions.



  

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[Assam] Transcripts from GU

2008-01-04 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

Does anyone have any clue on this?  My experience is
it is a pain to get even a duplicate marksheet from GU
and explaning this requirement and getting another set
of transcripts in a sealed envelop is next to
impossible.

Or may be someone who has migrated to Canada can
suggest alternatives.



--- Tarun S [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2008 13:10:24 -0800 (PST)
 From: Tarun S [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 
 Hi Krishnendu
 
 As we discussed, I am planning to apply for Canadian
 immigration.  I searched the Canadian Gov web and
 they are asking to submit original transcripts in
 University sealed envelop during application
 process. 
 
 Do you know anyone who has succeeded in getting
 these transcripts in sealed envelop from our
 Guwahati University ?   
 
 Hope things are going fine at your end
 
 Take Care
 
 Tarun
 
 
  


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[Assam] Racial Discrimination by American Police

2007-12-22 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=4fe8b577-e3fb-4f8a-82fe-15a24ba87171Headline=Indian+American+sues+NY+police


This is however not isolated incident.  I have heard
about such incidents in Boston too.  


  

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[Assam] author on US work visa legal? US-India school edu comparing

2007-12-14 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

Umesh

Watch out !  Even if you donate the money to charity,
you might still violate H1 laws.  
In fact,  what I understand (frequenting these forums)
is even a volunteer service might be an issue in
certain cases.  Volunteering is not an issue if you
volunteer in Church or library ... places where
everybody volunteers.
But if you  say I am volunteering for XYZ company, it
is a violation of H1.
In fact,  there are cases when parents were not
allowed a B1 visa if they say they want to visit to
take care of their pregnant daughter or take care of
their grandchild . you intend to work as a nanny
!!
Bottomline is ... any work that can provide an
opportunity to earn for an American is not allowed.

Again,  check with an Attorney ... you will find
numeours free chat sites ... more so since you plan to
go for GC


Krishnendu-da,

Thanks for the info. I registered at the portal you
mentioined but it seems like a headache one doesn't
want. 
If I have a hobby it should not take much time and
effort -- and if involves a lot of legal work then
better to appear a saint and not take any money
(volunteer !!!)
as many H1B visa holders do . It seems more important
for me to get it published than to get money from it 
(though who doesn't some extra cash). So might have to
donate the proceeds to www.ashanet.org or some other
education charity like www.unesco.org :-)

Thanks.

Umesh

you wrote:

Hi Umesh

Post this question in Murthy forum (www.murthy.com) 
or Rajeev Khanna's forum
(http://boards.immigration.com/). Both attorneys also
holds a chat session
 
Both these forums are frequented by Immigration
Attorneys and should be able to answer your question.

To my knowledge,  you cannot be gainfully employed
while on H1.  But this is more of a hobby ...so might
be a grey area

Dear All,

I have been thinking of writing a book or article
or booklet (anything which makes sense and pays
some money also) comparing school education in
India and USA. That was the topic of my proposed
research topic when I applied to Harvard for PhD
(while I was in India) but somehow it has become
a more personal interest for me. I am now working
with top US students coming from USA's top schools
and still not that many years since I was working
with students in Indian schools - so perhaps ideal
time for writing something on this relevance.

I do not know if someone in US would be interested
but perhaps in India (and in other nations of India's
stature) it would be of some interest. Everyone wants
to learn what is happening in the world's top
technology nation. How is the education there
different there. Ofcourse it might be difficult to
replicate a Harvard or an MIT in India or SOuth Africa
but perhaps (like Oprah's school in South Africa) it
is not that difficult to create futuristic schools in
emerging economies.

My question is that if I am here in US on a US work
visa allowing me to work for only work employer - am I
allowed to write a book and garner the revenue
proceeds from it.  One of my Harvard seniors from
Kenya wrote a book published by National Geographic -
while he was student at Harvard - but perhaps he was
already on Green Card (still single though) having
lived in US for over 18 years. How does it work for
someone on US work visa (H1)?

Umesh
 

Umesh Sharma



Umesh Sharma

Washington D.C. 

1-202-215-4328 [Cell]

Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005



  

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[Assam] Avibasi politics

2007-12-12 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

  I did clearly mentioned the states where one
will feel the fury of Indian ness.

From your below quote,  I assumed you said that
barring Assam it is same everywhere 

bECAUSE iNDIAN CONSTITUTION 
alows all only 
in Assam.



But again,  sorry Sir,   my experience is not the same
as yours.  I have been in Kerala (Thiruvananthapuram) 
too for a couple of months and had NO issue (except
language difficulty).  I cannot speak about Bengal
because I might had a better experience due to my
mother tongue.  Bihar is notorious for its criminal
acts (including land grabbing) but I do not know if
those are targetted to non locals only.


May be you can share your exact experience in Bengal,
Bihar, Kerala to enlighten us. 

As for your BUT in Bangalore,  I faced worse  BUT
being a Bengali born and brought up in Assam
particularly during the turbulent agitation days...
more then any BUT I experienced in Mumbai or Kerala
(practically none)  

If I am to believe my brother in law or some of my
close friends, they never felt any BUT or  red eye
in Bangalore and none of them had any uniformed job.

It is good to know about your Kannad skills
(contradicts to what you mentioned earlier though).
Even  I am pround of my Assamese speaking, writing and
reading skills and I will bet you a dollar that you
cannot identify me as a Bengali save my name.

Responding to Mr.Krishnendu Dangoriya,
  I did clearly mentioned the states where one
will feel the fury of Indian ness. Same one might
be enjoying at other state as citizen.
  Too live in Bangalore well happily- but always
there is a but.I can talk the local language, read
or write.But most of the times feel the red eye
to.Only my past uniformed job helps me.
  I did noted what states I know well.
   
  Now like Assamese, now Coorgies too loosing their
land to Mallus(Keralites).
  Responding to MCM- I too am more surprised at
these acts.
   
  Bikash
   
   
  Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2007 12:09:12 -0800 (PST)
From: Krishnendu Chakraborty 
Subject: [Assam] assam Digest, Vol 29, Issue
13/Avibasi politics
To: assam at assamnet.org
Message-ID: 18858.50993.qm at
web58010.mail.re3.yahoo.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

I own a Flat in Mumbai and never had any problem for
being non-local. My brother-in-law (from Guwahati)
owns a flat as well as a small plot of land in
Bangalore  again with no humiliation/rape/burning
of house etc.

I know scores of people all around India who have
settled there as Non-Local but never heard of such
problem for being non-local





  

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[Assam] assam Digest, Vol 29, Issue 13/Avibasi politics

2007-12-11 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

I own a Flat in Mumbai and never had any problem for
being non-local.  My brother-in-law (from Guwahati)
owns a flat as well as a small plot of land in
Bangalore  again with no humiliation/rape/burning
of house etc.

I know scores of people all around India who have
settled there as Non-Local  but  never heard of such
problem for being non-local

One Assamese or outsider cant buy land or settle in -
 KERALA, 
BIHAR,BENGAL. You will be chased away within night,
your family 
will be raped or humiliated and house will be burnt.
No law or 
Supreme court!!! Un believable, but being from
military I know it.


*** I am pretty uneducated about India as far as
these matters are 
concerned, since I did not live outside of Assam
except for a short 
stint in Kolkata, where the statement could be only
marginally true, 
in certain localities and not everywhere.  I had
many local friends 
there and did not feel the way Dr. Das describes.
So the above seems 
like a rather harsh reality, if not entirely
unthinkable. It also 
seems to be in direct conflict with many
assamnetters' opinions 
about how much at home they feel outside Assam
where they live or 
work.

Can someone explain the huge discrepancy here?

cm



At 4:55 PM + 12/11/07, DR BIKASH KUMAR DAS wrote:
Dear friends,
   As I told to Mr.Umesh earlier to with my live real
life example of 
KPSC Exam(State) at Karnataka, I was disqualified
inspite of having 
full score. Forget your ST/SC- you should be able to
write/Read anad 
talk local language for state jobs anywhere in India.
For IPS/IAS 
its cadre system with 6 months time to learn local
languages.
   But sorowfully in Assam, if one dnt know Assamese-
he will get the 
chair and can scold all assamese as dogs!!! This is
Indian dominate 
dirty game.
   As a ex serviceman I am liable to get job
anywhere, but the local 
rule here is simple- know state language!! One
Assamese or outsider 
cant buy land or settle in -  KERALA, BIHAR,BENGAL.
You will be 
chased away within night, your family will be raped
or humiliated 
and house will be burnt. No law or Supreme court!!!
Un believable, 
but being from military I know it. .But they can
anywhere... and 
assam is a dharamshala.bECAUSE iNDIAN CONSTITUTION 
alows all only 
in Assam.
   Bikash
   



  

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[Assam] assam Digest, Vol 29, Issue 13/Avibasi politics

2007-12-11 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

Few more points ---

I did not research on whether all other states require
one to be proficient in local language to get a job OR
whether GOA does not require that. 
But GOA jobs (including APSC)  are under Direct
control of GOA.  Not sure what Indian Constitution has
to do in this case ?
Or is it that Indian constitution mandates that except
Assam all other states can/should restrict jobs to
people knowing local language and Assam Cannot have
anything like that ?



--- Krishnendu Chakraborty [EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:

 Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2007 12:09:12 -0800 (PST)
 From: Krishnendu Chakraborty [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Subject: assam Digest, Vol 29, Issue 13/Avibasi
 politics
 To: assam@assamnet.org
 
 I own a Flat in Mumbai and never had any problem for
 being non-local.  My brother-in-law (from Guwahati)
 owns a flat as well as a small plot of land in
 Bangalore  again with no
 humiliation/rape/burning
 of house etc.
 
 I know scores of people all around India who have
 settled there as Non-Local  but  never heard of such
 problem for being non-local
 
 One Assamese or outsider cant buy land or settle in
 -
  KERALA, 
 BIHAR,BENGAL. You will be chased away within
 night,
 your family 
 will be raped or humiliated and house will be
 burnt.
 No law or 
 Supreme court!!! Un believable, but being from
 military I know it.
 
 
 *** I am pretty uneducated about India as far as
 these matters are 
 concerned, since I did not live outside of Assam
 except for a short 
 stint in Kolkata, where the statement could be
 only
 marginally true, 
 in certain localities and not everywhere.  I had
 many local friends 
 there and did not feel the way Dr. Das describes.
 So the above seems 
 like a rather harsh reality, if not entirely
 unthinkable. It also 
 seems to be in direct conflict with many
 assamnetters' opinions 
 about how much at home they feel outside Assam
 where they live or 
 work.
 
 Can someone explain the huge discrepancy here?
 
 cm
 
 
 
 At 4:55 PM + 12/11/07, DR BIKASH KUMAR DAS
 wrote:
 Dear friends,
As I told to Mr.Umesh earlier to with my live
 real
 life example of 
 KPSC Exam(State) at Karnataka, I was disqualified
 inspite of having 
 full score. Forget your ST/SC- you should be able
 to
 write/Read anad 
 talk local language for state jobs anywhere in
 India.
 For IPS/IAS 
 its cadre system with 6 months time to learn local
 languages.
But sorowfully in Assam, if one dnt know
 Assamese-
 he will get the 
 chair and can scold all assamese as dogs!!! This is
 Indian dominate 
 dirty game.
As a ex serviceman I am liable to get job
 anywhere, but the local 
 rule here is simple- know state language!! One
 Assamese or outsider 
 cant buy land or settle in -  KERALA, BIHAR,BENGAL.
 You will be 
 chased away within night, your family will be raped
 or humiliated 
 and house will be burnt. No law or Supreme court!!!
 Un believable, 
 but being from military I know it. .But they can
 anywhere... and 
 assam is a dharamshala.bECAUSE iNDIAN CONSTITUTION 
 alows all only 
 in Assam.
Bikash

 
 
 
  


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 know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.  Try it now. 

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[Assam] The Ian Mayes Lecture 'The news ombudsman' - The Hindu

2007-12-04 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

Ram-da,  photojournalism have always been in the realm
of controversy.  There are tonns of information in the
net on this.
I just picked up one such case.  
This (Vulture and Child) is one such photo which also
won a pulitzer prize.  The second link gives the
details of controversy.


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5241442

http://gec.tamucc.edu/article.pl?sid=07/02/07/194207mode=nocomment




The last few weeks, many of us have been
contemplating the role that the
news media ought to have. Many have felt that news
organizations have not
lived up their mark and have been irresponsible in
their reporting.

Well, those interested might be interested in this
lecture by Mayes. Mayes
makes some very valid points, and this idea of a
news ombudsman is quite
intriguing.

--Ram

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/nic/indialecture.htm

 Lecture presented by The Hindu in New Delhi and
Chennai, January 2006

The news ombudsman  a visible presence, an
independent voice

 Ian Mayes

Readers' Editor,

*The Guardian*  President, Organisation of News
Ombudsmen (ONO)


The ombudsman works independently within news
organisations at the interface
between readers, listeners and viewers on the one
hand, and journalists and
editors on the other. I sometimes compare the position
to that of a referee
in a football game, one that can get pretty rough at
times. He or she  the
ombudsman, that is  represents a form of
self-regulation that differs in
one important respect from all others relevant to the
media, such as the
Press Complaints Commission in the United Kingdom,
which apply across a
whole industry. It is the only kind of self-regulation
that has the effect
of building trust between a specific news organisation
and its readership or
audience, through the systematic, impartial and public
handling of
complaints, and through the open discussion of issues
raised by readers
concerning its journalism. I would put it a little
stronger than that and
say that for any news organisation that recognises a
responsibility to the
society it serves, it offers a real chance to build a
new, more open and
responsive relationship with its readership or
audience. It is also,
incidentally, something which readers are increasingly
demanding in the new
electronic environment in which email and quick and
easy access and response
are expected.

That the presence of an ombudsman fosters this
relationship with positive
benefit to the employer as well as to society at large
seems to be supported
both anecdotally by ombudsmen who believe that their
activities strengthen
trust and loyalty, and by more formal tests. In a
recent survey of *Guardian
* readers, for example, 75 per cent said they believed
that the existence of
an ombudsman made the paper more responsive to their
complaints and queries.


The appointment of an ombudsman is a unilateral act by
the newspaper or
broadcast outlet that sends a strong signal to
readers, listeners or
viewers. It represents a positive answer to this
question: Why should a
newspaper or news programme that by its nature is
constantly calling on
others to be accountable for their actions not be
accountable for its own
actions? I shall say more in a moment about the
benefits, the side effects
if you like, that may flow from the appointment of an
ombudsman but I want
to emphasise here that  in my opinion and experience
 any benefits depend
on the altruism of the initial motivation. You appoint
an ombudsman because
you want your news organisation to be an honest
self-correcting institution
with dedication to getting it right and no interest in
getting it wrong. To
put it a little higher, you want to feed into the
arena of public debate
accurate information upon which the citizen can rely
when he or she is
forming an opinion on the affairs of the day. The
questions for an editor or
individual journalist are: Would I say this if I was
talking directly to an
individual reader or, say, to a respected friend,
rather than communicating
through the medium of a newspaper or broadcast
programme? If I slipped into
error wouldn't I naturally correct it?

Just before we come back down to the realities and
pressures of day-to-day
journalism let me quote Savonarola on the spirit of
truth: This is a moral
rather than a legal duty, insomuch as it is certainly
a debt of honesty owed
by every man to his neighbour A debt of honesty owed
by every man to his
neighbour. Could we say that truth is a debt of
honesty owed by every
newspaper to its readers.?

The first step along this road is, I suggest, a very
simple one  one that
may work better if accompanied by the appointment of
an ombudsman but which
does not absolutely need one. It is the voluntary,
regular and systematic
publication of corrections: an easy matter for
newspapers and now made much
easier for broadcasters of news through the happy
advent of related
websites. One only has to look at the way in which the
BBC is now using its
website for this purpose. Why

Re: [Assam] The Ian Mayes Lecture 'The news ombudsman' - The Hindu

2007-12-04 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

As a matter of fact, there are many debates on whether
journalists should remain as  observers  or become a
participant

I think that they should remain as observers.  There
are two reasons why I think so ---

1) If they become participants, they might be missing
a moment which they should have captured 

2) If they become participant, in some cases they
might get biased. This point might not be true in all
cases though.

The example of WW II is a good one.  But for example, 
in the battlefield if a German see an American injured
and then he see another couple of American advancing
toward a bridge/building which he is supposed to
protect,  what he should do ?
It is difficult to draw a balance.
I would say it is probably a very grey area.

Bias (percieved or otherwsie) in journalism is a
different issue though  In an utopian world, 
every journalist should have zero bias towards any
political party, region, language, caste etc.  But
then again,  it is not utopian world.





--- Ram Sarangapani [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Thanks KC for forwarding those links. I have seen
 the photo of the vulture
 and the child before- possibily in these columns.
 Great stuff, I agree.
 
 Yes, there is a lot of controversy about how the
 media acts one way today
 and another tomorrow. We are also conflicted when we
 perceive bias or
 hostility from certain newspapers/reporters.
 
 And quite often these perceptions are hardened when
 people believe there is
 track record.
 
 Now, one may be logically correct in assuming that
 the media's role is to
 just report what they see - come what may, and that
 they are NOT responsible
 to make things better (as in this child's case -help
 it, or in the case of
 the young woman - to clothe her).
 
 As logical as this may be, I think, sometimes, there
 is a bigger calling
 ...that of humanity and that of sensitivity. Things
 oughtn't be so cut 
 dried.  After all, the media exists because of their
 readership. And when we
 are able to help (despite our professions), we ought
 to.
 
 To not do so would tantamount to missing the forest
 for the trees.
 
 To cite as an example there are so many cases of 
 German  American soldiers
 in WW II where they have helped out each other. They
 acted upon this (as my
 Christian friends would tell me - its the Christian
 thing to do:))
 inspite of their professions as soldiers, or strict
 guidelines against
 aiding/abetting the enemy.
 
 BUTwe have to be careful in our analyses:
 For the media, they ought to take a lot of care in
 making sure that they
 don't wade into sensationalism at the expense of
 truth.
 
 And we as readers ought to expect this of the
 media - that they may not
 report only things we like.
 
 Well! I may be wrong.. but thats my 2 poisa
 
 --Ram da
 
 Ram-da,  photojournalism have always been in the
 realm
 of controversy.  There are tonns of information in
 the
 net on this.
 I just picked up one such case.
 This (Vulture and Child) is one such photo which
 also
 won a pulitzer prize.  The second link gives the
 details of controversy.
 
 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5241442
 

http://gec.tamucc.edu/article.pl?sid=07/02/07/194207mode=nocomment
 
 
 
 
 On 12/4/07, Ram Sarangapani [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:
 
  The last few weeks, many of us have been
 contemplating the role that the
  news media ought to have. Many have felt that news
 organizations have not
  lived up their mark and have been irresponsible in
 their reporting.
 
  Well, those interested might be interested in this
 lecture by Mayes. Mayes
  makes some very valid points, and this idea of a
 news ombudsman is quite
  intriguing.
 
  --Ram
 
  http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/nic/indialecture.htm
 
   Lecture presented by The Hindu in New Delhi and
 Chennai, January 2006
 
  The news ombudsman  a visible presence, an
 independent voice
 
   Ian Mayes
 
  Readers' Editor,
 
  *The Guardian*  President, Organisation of News
 Ombudsmen (ONO)
 
 
  The ombudsman works independently within news
 organisations at the
  interface between readers, listeners and viewers
 on the one hand, and
  journalists and editors on the other. I sometimes
 compare the position to
  that of a referee in a football game, one that can
 get pretty rough at
  times. He or she  the ombudsman, that is 
 represents a form of
  self-regulation that differs in one important
 respect from all others
  relevant to the media, such as the Press
 Complaints Commission in the United
  Kingdom, which apply across a whole industry. It
 is the only kind of
  self-regulation that has the effect of building
 trust between a specific
  news organisation and its readership or audience,
 through the systematic,
  impartial and public handling of complaints, and
 through the open discussion
  of issues raised by readers concerning its
 journalism. I would put it a
  little stronger than that and say that for any
 news organisation that
  recognises a responsibility to the

[Assam] Sanjib Sabhapandit

2007-12-04 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

http://www.posoowa.org/2007/10/30/grantha-baandhab-and-jaatingaa-ityaadi/


From what I see, Sabhapandit seems to have an above
average  record as a film director (debut film won
National Award).  


In that, Sabhapandit's verdict is not worth the 
ink printed on, would be my conclusion.
  Maybe Sabhapandit is irrelevant

His abandoning Engineering study AEC And hope of
bringing in a Polyester Textiles Revolutioni n Assamin
'80 wave
His handing over the sick baby to AGP to be force
fed by Assam's Zero Economy(AGP Govt)
His last fling of trying ready made garments--and
telling AssamneseDo not buy from Surat--Plague,,,
His Grabbing Rail Prime Land and How-Howing Oxom
Jatiyo Bidyaloy and fleecing the lower middle class
Assamese families to believein his bring revolution
to their next generation's lives
His below average acting skills and failed film
Duirectorism...
He should have chosen a career in the RAW
By the way:
 what is NE
What is Extremism
What is Relevance
What is ST
What is AdiVasi
 
What is relevant?
mm



  

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[Assam] Mob strips woman protester in Guwahati - Times of India

  I think this program had more audience with good
IQ than the programs where the audience waited for
the photograph to come on screen again  again. 


Irrespective of what you Think (not sure what is the
Source of your information though),  the fact remains
--

1)   GOA arrested the culprits  based on footage (as
admitted by GOA)

2) The severe criticizm to this came after the footage
was published.  This is evident from Assamnet where
people were doubting the incident when only print news
was published but came down heavily on it after the
footage was shared.

  BTW people shouldn't presume that what they are
doing others will be definitely doing the same

Per basic netiquete, when people write something in
ALL CAPS, it is considered as Shouting.
I thought you are writing in All Caps,  not me !





Dear Mr Chokroborty
   
  Sorry I couldn't reply to ur comments as I was
out sice thursday. But the solution was already
written in my previous mail. Here I repeat it again
-
   
  TIMESNOW has not shown any footage of the
stripped woman but reported the news with heavy
condemnation.
   
  They carried out an half hour long panel
discussion on it (of much better quality
deliberations than what we r witnessing here) with
prominent people.
   
  I think this program had more audience with good
IQ than the programs where the audience waited for
the photograph to come on screen again  again. 
   
  May I know why you are shouting .. or is it
just that the CAPS lock in your keyboard is stuck :)
thats what u commented - 

  BTW people shouldn't presume that what they are
doing others will be definitely doing the same
   
  Regards
 Muktikam


Krishnendu Chakraborty krish_gau at yahoo.com wrote:
   HIDING THE FACE OF THE WOMAN IS NOT THE SOLUTION.
WILL YOU AGREE TO SUCH A SOLUTION IF THAT HAPPENS
TO YOUR OWN SISTER OR MOTHER OR ANY RELATIVE ?


So what is the solution  shove it under the carpet
just like our Netas were trying to do until Media
exposed it ?

By your logic a rape victim should not move to
court/police station ! You would probably advice this
if your relative is a victim of such incident.

From what I see in this forum, people are more
concerned primarily because this exposure caused a
negative publicity to Assam and NOT because they are
concerned about the modesty of the woman. This is
apparent from many questioning why media exposed it
for Assam and never do it for other places .

May I know why you are shouting .. or is it just
that the CAPS lock in your keyboard is stuck :)




Dear Mr Chakraborty

 HIDING THE FACE OF THE WOMAN IS NOT THE SOLUTION.
WILL YOU AGREE TO SUCH A SOLUTION IF THAT HAPPENS
TO YOUR OWN SISTER OR MOTHER OR ANY RELATIVE ?

 Regards
 Muktikam Phukan

Krishnendu Chakraborty 
wrote:
 Unless I am mistaken, ALL media reports blurred
the
face of the lady to hide identity. Exposing such
henious acts are not a Assam/India media phenomenon
but is done by media all over world.


What is the allegation against media ---

1) That they exposed a crime 

2) That it gave Assam a bad publicity

3) That the lady (whose identity is not disclosed by
the photograph) has been insulted

Seeing all the posts in this forum, I suspect it is
number 2 above. 

But then, had media not exposed it, would there been
such swift action from GOA. The GOA was earlier trying
to cover it up as a minor incident.
The Assam Police already mentiond that they have
identified the culprits from the media footage.

If someone can prove that what media showed is
false/fabricated, I am all with him in blaming media
but this does not seem to be the case here.

Yes, it gave a negative publicity to Assam but that
was NOT because of Media's fault  it was because
of our Government's fault. The incident could have
been controlled much earlier had the police force been
active.

To dilute the situation, there are already comments by
some that the Adivasi's were inebriated, or that why
they should demand such things in Assam.
All set aside, there cannot be any justification to
such barbaric act .. period.

BTW, does someone know what happened to Barnali rape
case . a child who was raped and murdered by some
Network travel employees?


Media always exposes such incidents be it Assam or
Abu Ghraib. I thought it is duty of Media.


 TIMESNOW has not shown any footage of the stripped
woman but reported the news with heavy condemnation.
In fact Arnab Goswami has raised a very pertinent
question - 

 HAS ANYONE TAKEN THE PERMISSION OF THE LADY
BEFORE SHOWING HER NAKED PHOTOS ? ARE WE NOT ADDING
FURTHER INSULT TO THE ALREADY INSULTED POOR WOMAN ?





  

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[Assam] Asom youths unaware of Govt policies: Survey (The Sentinel, 03.12.2007)

Please check the site 
http://www.indiapost.gov.in/foreigntariff.html

Some operator not knowing how to operate a computer
does not mean that IT of Indian postal service sucks



Not so when a IT Hub Nation battles  so hard to
get a country called SA!
mm







  

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[Assam] Asom youths unaware of Govt policies: Survey (The Sentinel, 03.12.2007)

Sorry did not notice that you wanted to do Speedpost .

Speedpost covers 97 countries and SA is Not one of
those as mentioned in Indian Post's website

If the PM has mentioned that they will send it to
Namibia and then from there somehow it will reach SA,
sure he has no clue.   In all probabilities, it will
be sent back to you.   It will make sense to use
private Courier or send it Registered if you want to
use Postal Service

Nothing to do with IT though


--- Krishnendu Chakraborty [EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:

 Please check the site 
 http://www.indiapost.gov.in/foreigntariff.html
 
 Some operator not knowing how to operate a computer
 does not mean that IT of Indian postal service sucks
 
 
 
 Not so when a IT Hub Nation battles  so hard to
 get a country called SA!
 mm
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  


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[Assam] Asom youths unaware of Govt policies: Survey (The Sentinel, 03.12.2007)

I suspect the clerk at
 the post office (and possibily the other officials)
either do not have the
 latest software or are not computer literate.


Ram-da,
It is probably none of those. 

The booking clerk and officials were focussed on
Speedpost and could not find SA in their list.  
As it happens in most Govt offices (even in US), they
have been trained on very narrow specifics and will
not deviate from that unless specifically
guided/asked.

Had Mukul-da asked him to check if it can be sent by
Registered / Ordinary post,  he would probably have
come up with SA immediately .


Well, yes KC is correct - it seems there is no
speedpost available to South
Africa. But there is regular/ordinary  service to
South Africa.


On 12/3/07, Ram Sarangapani assamrs at gmail.com
wrote:

 Mukul da

 From the site that Babul Gogoi sent


http://www.indiapost.gov.in/Netscape/foreigntariff.html

 South Africa is obviously there in the dropdown. I
suspect the clerk at
 the post office (and possibily the other officials)
either do not have the
 latest software or are not computer literate.

 --Ram


  On 12/3/07, mc mahant mikemahant at hotmail.com
wrote:
 
 
  As the country was projecting itself as an IT
hub, the youth of Asom
  were found to be much ignorant about it. 36 per
cent are not aware where the
  software is stored in a computer. Only five per
cent use e-mails regularly,
  54 per cent never used e-mail and 21 per cent of
them want to, but do not
  know how to use the e-mail.
 
 
 
  I am not too sure about India being an IT hub!
  Incident was today's.
  I dropped into Guahati GPO to SpeedPost(EMS)  an
article to Durban
  ,South Africa 2014.
  The mouse- toting booking Clerk exclaimed :
  What is this you are writing--there is no country
called South Africa
  My telling him that Sonia Gandhi and MMS have both
paid State visits to
  South Africa a  couple of months back--did not
impress him.
  He grudgingly took a huge sum of money,booked the
article and handed me
  a receipt--Durban-USA
  I demanded to see the GPO Master.
  PM was baffled too. His ultramodern Flatscreen
monitor had no SA either.
  I told him Your Nation's Father M.K.Gandhi
brought a copy of African
  National Congress from there(and so many lived
here happily  ever after)' .
  This also  fell flat on him.Iam helpless he
pleaded.
  Oh no you are not helpless--you have all the
genius sitting at
  Delhi-pick up and dial -speak--you are here to
solve problems. He advised
  me to write  in the Sentinel!!!
  Sir , you do not know our Problems--he pleads.
 
  Finally after3 top officers battled with various
discs and Rule Books
  the said --the best we can do is book it for
Central African
  Republic,Kenya,Morocco,Botswana  or --presto
hey-Namibia.
  I said NAmibia then--but how will it go to Durban
SA
  They all were very hopeful Sir do not
worry--somehow it will reach.
  I did not hear them say 'God is there'
  Iam trying now to locate PMGeneral- in Delhi's
-E-mailID.
 
  The objects listed in Article below  may or may
not be relevant in 2007.
  These can be looked up.
  Not so when a IT Hub Nation battles  so hard to
get a country called
  SA!
  mm



  

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[Assam] Mob strips woman protester in Guwahati - Times of India

2007-11-30 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

FYI how fast track courts work and how media helps
build the pressure

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4775905.stm


http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/feb2007/indi-f03.shtml

Search net if you need more info.


Nayan can probably explain more on how Fast Track
courts work and how police can speed up/delay
proceedings (investigation/chargesheet etc) based on
which wheel is squeaking more.




  but I do not see ANY petition demanding quick and
stern actions against those who were involved in
thisincident.


 Just out of curiosity; how is this done? I
mean getting QUICK 
and STERN action  ?  Should people be picked up and
meted summary 
judgement like it is done for those labeled ULFA,
TERRORIST and the 
like, on the spot, by those who have the authority
to do that?

If NOT, what are the tools available for the people
in India to 
obtain this? What is the process? Who will do it?
When will it 
happen?  What precedents are there to point to as
an example? Where?

Without an understanding of this process to merely
SEEK it in these 
exchanges is little more than an exercise in
futility, in the make 
believe, isn't it?






















At 8:52 AM -0800 11/30/07, Krishnendu Chakraborty
wrote:
Bhaiti

1)  I believe I have expressed it quite clearly what
I
am pointing at --- some people's perception that
Media
painted Assam in Black ...  The arguments and
postings
were more focussed on that rather then dignity of a
woman.  As I said,  I would not have get into this
HAD
the criticisms revolved around this topic

2) The question on Lawyers is relevant because you
asked whether journalists will go to court to help
lawyers. It is your choice that you avoided it.

3) You might be interested in internet porno sites or
for that matter the  bars in Guwahati (as reported by
Sentinal a couple of days back)  but trust me,  there
are better things to do.

This has nothing to do with your thinking power, it
is
about feeling ..  People seems to be more
concerned about shoving it under the carpet as a
minor issue  rather then demanding justice.

There are petitions  demanding actions against media
but I do not see ANY petition demanding quick and
stern actions against those who were involved in this
incident.
That, sadly,  says all about your dignity for woman




  

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[Assam] Mob strips woman protester in Guwahati - Times of India

2007-11-30 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

Bhaiti

1)  I believe I have expressed it quite clearly what I
am pointing at --- some people's perception that Media
painted Assam in Black ...  The arguments and postings
were more focussed on that rather then dignity of a
woman.  As I said,  I would not have get into this HAD
the criticisms revolved around this topic

2) The question on Lawyers is relevant because you
asked whether journalists will go to court to help
lawyers. It is your choice that you avoided it.

3) You might be interested in internet porno sites or
for that matter the  bars in Guwahati (as reported by
Sentinal a couple of days back)  but trust me,  there
are better things to do.

This has nothing to do with your thinking power, it is
about feeling ..  People seems to be more
concerned about shoving it under the carpet as a
minor issue  rather then demanding justice. 

There are petitions  demanding actions against media
but I do not see ANY petition demanding quick and
stern actions against those who were involved in this
incident.
That, sadly,  says all about your dignity for woman



Chakraborty Da,

Please accept my sincere and unconditional apology
for wasting your valuable
time. It was quite unworthy of me to doubt your
contentions regarding the
naked portrayal of a woman by some news channels. I
simply do not have any
words to argue with your logic. But then you have to
bear with me. I say and
do things which my mind and heart says. At times I
even get emotional about
things. But then what to do, I am not the
enlightened one like you. Infact
the main problem with Assam today is that the
enlightened ones are outside.
So we, the unenlightened ones have to cope with
whatever situation comes
with our own limited resources (thinking power).
Most of the Assamese people
don't even have access to the internet so that they
can mail you and take
your opinion before doing something. There is no one
to guide the masses. So
we have a corrupt government. We have a state where
nothing is right. Maybe
one day you will come and enlighten us too.

By the way CNN IBN apologised today for doing their
duty. This news was
published in the Assamese newspaper Asomiya Khabar
today. I think you should
take up the matter and show them light. You should
strongly protest before
them stating that why should they have to apologise
for doing their duty.

As for the other things you have said about us
lawyers, I would not like to
comment upon them now as they are irrelavent in the
context of this issue.
Maybe we'll talk about it sometime later because
today the issue involves
the dignity of a women. And I am sure, even if you
do not have any sisters
or wife or daughter, you must be having a mother. So
next time you you want
to see a naked woman. Please visit a Internet porno
site or strip bar in Las
Vegas. Not Assam. Our women are not for public
display. We are not yet that
forward. And I am proud to be backward in this area.

Regards,
Nayanjyoti Medhi



On Nov 30, 2007 2:25 AM, Krishnendu Chakraborty
krish_gau at yahoo.com wrote:

 Nayan,

 Once again,  I would first like to know the reason
for
 outrage against media   is it because the
picture
 depicted Assam in Negative or is it because it
 insulted the woman. From beginning I am seeing the
 outburst for the former reason  had it been ONLY
 the later reason , I would probably not have taken
up
 my pen (keyboard).

 My only concern is people are stooping to a lower
 level of regionalism against humanism.

 Coming to your points --

 You get me wrong. I am not condemning anyone

 You should condemn those who commited the crime and
 those who abeted by not trying to prevent it.


 But
 showing a picture to a Judge is something else and
 publishing it in a
 newspaper is something altogether different. Won't
 you agree?

 In democracy,  the media plays a vital role in
shaping
 public opinion, in bringing awareness, in keeping
the
 government on its toes.   This picture serves all
 these purpose . exposing how miserably our
 government failed.  Just the way a judge will form
an
 opinion,  the public will form an opinion based on
 this


 Do you think that
 the other pictures of people beating people were
not
 enough that they had to
 publish the picture of that stripped innocent girl
 to pressurize the
 government?


 If the other pictures would have had the same
impact,
 why the outburst that this picture has painted Assam
 in black ?


 nd this
 would not be the first time. And as you have said
 about the PIL. I can
 assure you that it won't be able to reverse the
 process of not being able to
 control the situation.

 Did not expect this from you .  ANY criminal
 litigation CANNOT reverse what has happened.  If you
 use this example,  these criminals should not be put
 through legal process because it will NOT reverse
the
 situation nor should a murderer be put to trial
 because you cannot undo the murder.


 I simply cannot speak for anyone else other than
me.
 But let
 me enlighten you

[Assam] Mob strips woman protester in Guwahati - Times of India

2007-11-30 Thread Krishnendu Chakraborty

I have NOT accused you of being indifferent. Anyone
who does not feel like you (public caning) is probably
a similar monster like those who commited it.
 I merely QUOTED some comments from your posting 

Women have been routinely abused in other parts of
mainland India(
including gang rape, public stripping and parading )
.. Does any
newspaper publish the pictures of the crime?

OR the one from current posting ---

tell me when did Telegraph ever publish the picture of
a harassed or victimised women in Calcutta?

As I said,  first clarify  the root of your concern
 is it 1) Media's perceived bias  OR   2) the
modesty of the woman.

From your comments (as above), it seems more inclined
to 1 above. I will stand corrected if it is other way.


I also do not support that all demands of the
Adivasis should be just met
just because they have indulged in hooliganism a


The demand of Adivasis has NOTHING to do with
stripping of the woman.  You are either mixing two
issues OR trying to justify the incident.


Also Mr Chakraborty, tell me when did Telegraph ever
publish the picture of
a harassed or victimised women in Calcutta?

That sir,  you will have to do your own research. 
However,  this is NOT the first time media
(Indian/International) has published such photo
(immediate example is Abu Ghraib)  unfortunately
we heard your voice only on this incident  a
selective outrage at best.





To Mr K Chakraborty

You have no right to accuse me of being indifferent 
to the Adivasi women
who got stripped. You haven't answered whether you
will like your mother,
sister or relative's picture to be published in a
similar situation. I
support public stripping and caning of the molesters
in the streets of
Beltola where the incident occured. I am not the 
only one who has spoken
about  the picture. The Assam Tribune editorial,
Letters to the Editor are
also carrying messages(even from women) about the
dubious role so called
media like Telegraph are playing. Some media outlets
are even portraying the
riots as being between Assamese and tribals. What
kind of a  role are they
playing?
I also do not support that all demands of the
Adivasis should be just met
just because they have indulged in hooliganism and
have been in the
receiving end in this episode.
Also Mr Chakraborty, tell me when did Telegraph ever
publish the picture of
a harassed or victimised women in Calcutta?
JS

I also quote a letter to the editor( AT ) from a
women:
Sir,Whatever happened at Beltola on November 24 has
indeed been very
unfortunate. And I feel, the district administration
is primarily to be
blamed for this. But, apart from fixing
responsibilities, what is more
shocking is the repeated telecast of the naked Adivasi
woman by the TV
channels. Do they actually empathise with her or
simply trying to
sensationalise the issue ? Has anyone cared to know
whether she would like
to appear on TV screens naked, all 24 hours ? She was
stripped on the
Beltola road by some lumpen elements and we strongly
condemn it. They should
be severely punished. But, aren't the TV channels
stripping her again and
again as she is being viewed by millions of people
across the country ?
Initially, only a handful of people on that road had
seen her naked. Now the
TV channels have let everyone in the country see her
without any clothes !
Any other crime committed on this same woman, had she
been in her clothes,
would definitely not have made a top story in any of
the national news
channels. So, is it really her trauma that is making
news or her nudity? 
Yours etc., SUMITA SHARMA, Zoo-Narengi Road, Guwahati.




  

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[Assam] Mob strips woman protester in Guwahati - Times of India

  HIDING THE FACE OF THE WOMAN IS NOT THE SOLUTION.
WILL YOU AGREE TO SUCH A SOLUTION IF THAT HAPPENS
TO YOUR OWN SISTER OR MOTHER OR ANY RELATIVE ?


So what is the solution  shove it under the carpet
just like our Netas  were trying to do until Media
exposed it ?

By your logic a rape victim should not move to
court/police station !  You would probably advice this
if your relative is a victim of such incident.

From what I see in this forum, people are more
concerned primarily because this exposure caused a
negative publicity to Assam and NOT because they are
concerned about the modesty of the woman.  This is
apparent from many questioning why media exposed it
for Assam and never do it for other places .

May I know why you are shouting .. or is it just
that the CAPS lock in your keyboard is stuck :)




Dear Mr Chakraborty
   
  HIDING THE FACE OF THE WOMAN IS NOT THE SOLUTION.
WILL YOU AGREE TO SUCH A SOLUTION IF THAT HAPPENS
TO YOUR OWN SISTER OR MOTHER OR ANY RELATIVE ?
   
  Regards
  Muktikam Phukan

Krishnendu Chakraborty krish_gau at yahoo.com
wrote:
  Unless I am mistaken, ALL media reports blurred
the
face of the lady to hide identity. Exposing such
henious acts are not a Assam/India media phenomenon
but is done by media all over world.


What is the allegation against media ---

1) That they exposed a crime 

2) That it gave Assam a bad publicity

3) That the lady (whose identity is not disclosed by
the photograph) has been insulted

Seeing all the posts in this forum, I suspect it is
number 2 above. 

But then, had media not exposed it, would there been
such swift action from GOA. The GOA was earlier trying
to cover it up as a minor incident.
The Assam Police already mentiond that they have
identified the culprits from the media footage.

If someone can prove that what media showed is
false/fabricated, I am all with him in blaming media
but this does not seem to be the case here.

Yes, it gave a negative publicity to Assam but that
was NOT because of Media's fault  it was because
of our Government's fault. The incident could have
been controlled much earlier had the police force been
active.

To dilute the situation, there are already comments by
some that the Adivasi's were inebriated, or that why
they should demand such things in Assam.
All set aside, there cannot be any justification to
such barbaric act .. period.

BTW, does someone know what happened to Barnali rape
case . a child who was raped and murdered by some
Network travel employees?


Media always exposes such incidents be it Assam or
Abu Ghraib. I thought it is duty of Media.


 TIMESNOW has not shown any footage of the stripped
woman but reported the news with heavy condemnation.
In fact Arnab Goswami has raised a very pertinent
question - 

 HAS ANYONE TAKEN THE PERMISSION OF THE LADY
BEFORE SHOWING HER NAKED PHOTOS ? ARE WE NOT ADDING
FURTHER INSULT TO THE ALREADY INSULTED POOR WOMAN ?



  

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[Assam] Mob strips woman protester in Guwahati - Times of India

1.  From the outrage we are seeing here,  people are
more concerned at Assam's Image NOT at modesty of the
woman (refer postings of BD, JS) .
 First, please clarify the reason of this outrage

2.  A picture often speaks much more then a thousand
line  that is why photo journalism exists. 
Without this picture you would not have seen such
reactions (Quote from CM --- They are animals).
you as a lawyer should know it better  that the
impression this picture is going to have on a judge is
much more then a thousand lines.  In US court system,
pictures do play a vital role (I have some interest in
law though I am not a lawyer)

3.  Every person in the society has their own role to
play ..By your logic, a journalist covering war
should go and treat war victims instead of reporting. 
Journalists are often termed as heartless but because
they are,  you can become aware of the crime happening
around the world.
 Did the media person Arnab Goswami (who is being
highly praised)  try to resist the hooligans ?

4.  If media would have given the photos to
police/government instead of publishing it,  there
would NOT have been the pressure on government  and
Government would have hushed up the matter (as they
tried initialy)

5.  If media people start flocking the court as
witnesses, will advocates cover their role ?

6.  Many are pointing that media was wrong but you as
an advocate can easily file a lawsuit against media if
they are wrong.  Will you?

7.  As an advocate, will you represent the victims
(this and other similar cases)  pro-bono

8.  For every criminal case, you have a criminal
advocate trying to save the criminal.  Can you, as an
advocate, give us assurance that NO advocate will
represent these (or other similar) criminals?

9.  Will you, as an advocate,  file a PIL against GOA
as to why they failed to control the situation?


I am all with you to protect Assam's interest ... .  
But you seem to be blaming the wrong person for
degrading Assam ..  count me in if you are
condemning the right set of people  the
government, police et al.




If I may,
1. Maybe the media could have given the tapes to the
police so that they
could catch the culprits (which they have done).
2. Maybe they could have given a detailed write up
instead of the photograph
or video.
3. Maybe they could have given the girl a piece of
cloth to cover her
modesty instead of a black strip on the photo or video
(I presume they were
Eye Witnesses).
4. Maybe they could have resisted the hooligans and
saved the girl from
getting stripped instead of shooting pictures (If I am
not wrong they did
not shoot pictures of the person who gave the girl a
piece of cloth to cover
her modesty).
5. Maybe they could have used their pens to condemn
the incident.

Uncovering the truth is of course  their duty but is
it not their duty to
save a girl from getting stripped in the first place.
Will they (the
photographers) go and testify against the molestors
in the court? If it is
their duty to uncover the truth? Can you give us
assurance that they will be
present in the court to ensure punishment to the
molestors? Or is it that
their duty finishes as soon as they click with zoom
lenses from safe
distances and publish the pictures?

Regards

Nayanjyoti Medhi

On Nov 29, 2007 8:03 PM, Krishnendu Chakraborty
krish_gau at yahoo.com wrote:

   HIDING THE FACE OF THE WOMAN IS NOT THE
SOLUTION.
 WILL YOU AGREE TO SUCH A SOLUTION IF THAT HAPPENS
 TO YOUR OWN SISTER OR MOTHER OR ANY RELATIVE ?


 So what is the solution  shove it under the
carpet
 just like our Netas  were trying to do until Media
 exposed it ?

 By your logic a rape victim should not move to
 court/police station !  You would probably advice
this
 if your relative is a victim of such incident.

 From what I see in this forum, people are more
 concerned primarily because this exposure caused a
 negative publicity to Assam and NOT because they are
 concerned about the modesty of the woman.  This is
 apparent from many questioning why media exposed it
 for Assam and never do it for other places .

 May I know why you are shouting .. or is it just
 that the CAPS lock in your keyboard is stuck :)




 Dear Mr Chakraborty

   HIDING THE FACE OF THE WOMAN IS NOT THE
SOLUTION.
 WILL YOU AGREE TO SUCH A SOLUTION IF THAT HAPPENS
 TO YOUR OWN SISTER OR MOTHER OR ANY RELATIVE ?

   Regards
   Muktikam Phukan

 Krishnendu Chakraborty krish_gau at yahoo.com
 wrote:
   Unless I am mistaken, ALL media reports blurred
 the
 face of the lady to hide identity. Exposing such
 henious acts are not a Assam/India media phenomenon
 but is done by media all over world.


 What is the allegation against media ---

 1) That they exposed a crime

 2) That it gave Assam a bad publicity

 3) That the lady (whose identity is not disclosed by
 the photograph) has been insulted

 Seeing all the posts in this forum, I suspect it is
 number 2 above.

 But then, had media not exposed it, would there been

[Assam] Mob strips woman protester in Guwahati - Times of India

You said it all Alpana'ba  it is a shame ...
period.

People seem to be beating around the bushes blaming
media rather then  the real villains


Isn't still the main issue be that a girl was
brutally humiliated in broad daylight and that it
should NEVER EVEr happen to anyone?
 
I thought I saw a person on the video spreading his
hands to protect the girl from others after she was
given a jacket to cover herself up. 
 
It is a shame!!
 



  

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[Assam] Mob strips woman protester in Guwahati - Times of India

 the victims if
asked for by them(pro bono)
but for your information, I also do not volunteer my
services. And this
would not be the first time. And as you have said
about the PIL. I can
assure you that it won't be able to reverse the
process of not being able to
control the situation. And even if a PIL is filed,
do you know what will
happen? It would mean just another pending case for
many years and
appearance fees for us advocates. It won't make
people kill each other. It
also won't make people hate each other.

And lastly, the assurance you want from me as to no
advocate will represent
the villains, I simply cannot speak for anyone else
other than me. But let
me enlighten you that cases are not won because there
is someone (an
advocate) to represent the villain. Cases are won when
witnesses do not
falter, when they speak the truth with courage (they
have to appear first).
If witnesses do not appear then justice is delayed and
sometimes denied. And
as you know delay is the worst form of denial.

regards,

nayanjyoti medhi

On Nov 29, 2007 11:32 PM, Krishnendu Chakraborty
krish_gau at yahoo.com
wrote:

 1.  From the outrage we are seeing here,  people are
 more concerned at Assam's Image NOT at modesty of
the
 woman (refer postings of BD, JS) .
 First, please clarify the reason of this outrage

 2.  A picture often speaks much more then a thousand
 line  that is why photo journalism exists.
 Without this picture you would not have seen such
 reactions (Quote from CM --- They are animals).
 you as a lawyer should know it better  that the
 impression this picture is going to have on a judge
is
 much more then a thousand lines.  In US court
system,
 pictures do play a vital role (I have some interest
in
 law though I am not a lawyer)

 3.  Every person in the society has their own role
to
 play ..By your logic, a journalist covering war
 should go and treat war victims instead of
reporting.
 Journalists are often termed as heartless but
because
 they are,  you can become aware of the crime
happening
 around the world.
  Did the media person Arnab Goswami (who is being
 highly praised)  try to resist the hooligans ?

 4.  If media would have given the photos to
 police/government instead of publishing it,  there
 would NOT have been the pressure on government  and
 Government would have hushed up the matter (as they
 tried initialy)

 5.  If media people start flocking the court as
 witnesses, will advocates cover their role ?

 6.  Many are pointing that media was wrong but you
as
 an advocate can easily file a lawsuit against media
if
 they are wrong.  Will you?

 7.  As an advocate, will you represent the victims
 (this and other similar cases)  pro-bono

 8.  For every criminal case, you have a criminal
 advocate trying to save the criminal.  Can you, as
an
 advocate, give us assurance that NO advocate will
 represent these (or other similar) criminals?

 9.  Will you, as an advocate,  file a PIL against
GOA
 as to why they failed to control the situation?


 I am all with you to protect Assam's interest ... .
 But you seem to be blaming the wrong person for
 degrading Assam ..  count me in if you are
 condemning the right set of people  the
 government, police et al.



  

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[Assam] (no subject)